Senators give their opinion on ISG report

[ProSense]

'08ers HAVE AN OPINION TOO

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA): "This study group does not do as much of the job as I think we still need to get done" ("Scarborough Country," MSNBC, 12/6).

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT): "The most important audience for this commission report are in Iraq and within the region. Most of these recommendations call upon the Iraqis to do things differently" ("NewsHour," PBS, 12/6).

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE): "The fact is the future of Iraq will be determined by the Iraqi people. It's not going to be determined by us" ("NewsHour," PBS, 12/6).

Sen. Barack Obamam (sic) (D-IL), asked what will happen if Bush doesn't follow the report recommendations: "I don't want to speculate on that right now. The fact of the matter is the president is the commander-in-chief. As much as we object to what he is doing, ultimately we are expecting leadership from the White House on this issue. The one power that we have in Congress is the power of the purse. I see no appetite, and certainly I would not support, actually restricting funds that we need to make sure that our troops are protected and successful. But I think the interesting thing ... is that you're going to see at least as much pressure, if not more pressure, from within the president's own party, to take these recommendations seriously, because I think they recognize that not only is America paying a price for misguided policies, but the Republican Party is paying a political price, as well" ("Situation Room," CNN, 12/6).

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI): "This is really a Washington inside job, and it shows not in the description of what's happened, that's fairly accurate, but it shows in the recommendations. It's been called a classic Washington compromise that does not do the job of extricating us from Iraq in a way that we can deal with the issues in Southeast Asia, in Afghanistan, and in Somalia, which are every bit as important as what is happening in Iraq. So this report does not do the job, and it's because it was not composed of a real representative group of Americans, who believe what the American people showed in the election, which is that it is time for us to have a timetable to bring the troops out of Iraq" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 12/6).

Obama is still in the open-ended, no-deadline group, but trying hard to sound like Kerry:

KERRY: There are all kinds of things that the Senate can do. They can change the dynamics here very significantly, not the least of which, obviously, are serious accountability hearings.

Secondly, we have the ability in the Congress to pass one resolution or another or to put into law certain kinds of policies. I mean, you remember back in the days of the Contras in Central America, the Congress passed what was called the Boland Amendment and actually forbade certain activities from taking place.

So Congress has a certain power here. I think before we get into that, it would be so much better if we could sit down with the president, with Condoleezza Rice, and really talk through how we come together, both parties, take the politics out at the water's edge, and get a policy that works for America.

Shaping Iraq Policy Perilous for Democrats

By CQ Staff
Mon Dec 4, 9:46 AM ET

Written by Elaine Monaghan

Tuesday’s Senate confirmation hearing for Robert M. Gates to become the new Defense secretary will provide Democrats with their first opportunity since the elections to strike a tone on the Iraq debate.

Democrats will have another chance on Wednesday, when the bipartisan Iraq Study Group releases its recommendations for a new policy toward the Iraq War. The group’s report is expected to call for a withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by early 2008 while leaving enough troops behind to train and support the Iraqi military. The group also is expected to urge President Bush to convene a conference of all of Iraq’s neighbors, including Iran and Syria.

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John Kerry, D-Mass., another likely candidate, would like to see a meeting between Bush and members of Congress to hammer out a bipartisan policy on Iraq.

In anticipation of White House resistance to Democratic ideas, Kerry hinted that Congress has the power to halt funding for military action. He alluded to the 1982 “Boland Amendment” (PL 97-377), which banned Reagan administration funding for the “contras” opposed to the leftist Sandinista-led government in Nicaragua.

Kerry’s reference came in a Nov. 30 interview with CNN. A day later, a Kerry aide said the senator was not suggesting that Democrats might seek to cut off war funding. Indeed, incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has said Democrats will not do so while U.S. forces are still deployed in Iraq.

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More Kerry comments here, here and here.