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Time for action on Iraq is today |
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By Lynn Sweet
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Posted: 07/12/07 06:47 PM [ET] |
The question for the House Democratic leaders was timing — when to call the latest version of legislation imposing deadlines on pulling troops from Iraq. The answer is today.
As with most big issues, the matter of when to vote on the Iraq bill was settled among the top House leaders at a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in her conference room. They huddled late Tuesday.
Pelosi had announced before the July 4 break that the House would keep pressure up on President Bush and House Republicans. The strategic call was when.
The House is taking a different approach than the Senate: The lower chamber will be voting on a stand-alone bill by Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) calling for complete redeployment by April 1, 2008.
The Senate Democratic leaders are trying to attach Iraq pull-out legislation to the Defense Department authorization measure. The House did not have that option, having already passed its defense authorization bill.
There’s a full-whip push on for the Skelton bill. It’s the fourth time House members have voted on version of bills aimed at pressuring Bush to withdraw soldiers from Iraq, including the roll calls on the supplemental war funding bill Bush vetoed.
The ultimate question is how any withdrawal language could become law. The skirmishes this week in the House and Senate are yet another round, since the defense bill would have to survive a conference. But from the Democratic leadership view, it’s yet another vote on the unpopular war the Republicans will have to take.
Blunt BluntAfter six months in the minority desert, House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) delivered a state-of-conservatism speech Tuesday at the Heritage Foundation. For those wondering what government creep means to a conservative, Blunt offers this anthem:
“Today, our government makes first contact with you before you’re born and doesn’t let go until after you die — and literally after you die, not just when you die. We have programs that take care of you in the womb, programs that work right alongside the doctor when you’re born. We have programs that are with you when you take your first steps. We have federal programs for child care; we have federal programs for gifted students and for failing students; we have federal programs for delinquency and ADD; we have federal programs to teach kids how to swim and jog and play tennis; we have federal programs that teach young people how to do proper sit-ups and what snacks to avoid after dinner.”
Blunt spokesman Amos Snead said the speech was posted on YouTube, Twitter.com and webcast live on the Heritage site.
Skinny on ReidSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) decided to not let a question about the marks on his face get under his skin.
“What did I have done with the dermatologist? I had — being fair-skinned, being raised in the desert, I had some little things the sun — they’re not cancerous, they’re just — they have a — I think it’s nitrogen or hydrogen or something. They just freeze them off. These are freeze marks,” he explained. He said the growths were an actinic keratosis.
Sweet is the Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times. E-mail:
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