Senate blocks bill on Iraq combat tours

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON - The Senate blocked legislation Wednesday that would have regulated the amount of time troops spent in combat, a blow for Democrats struggling to challenge President Bush's Iraq policies.
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The 56-44 vote was four votes short of reaching the 60 needed to cut off debate. It was the second time in as many months that the bill, sponsored by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., was sidetracked. In July, a similar measure fell four votes short of advancing.

Failure of the bill was a sound defeat for Democrats, who have been unable to pass significant anti-war legislation by a veto-proof majority since taking control of Congress in January. Webb's measure was seen as having the best chance at attracting the 60 votes needed to pass because of its pro-military premise.

The bill would have required that troops spend as much time at home training with their units as they spend deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Members of the National Guard or Reserve would be guaranteed three years at home before being sent back.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070919/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq

[Purveyor]

1. Just 'shutdown' the fucking Senate then. Let nothing pass until this 60 vote nonsense

stops!

BTW, where the 'nuclear option' that the GOP so threatened to use when they had control of the Senate?

[liberalmuse]

4. We'd be better off.

I don't fault the Democrats who are not really in the majority, for trying. I do fault them for not shouting from the rooftops that they would get us out of this war if it weren't for the Republicans and traitors of Joe Lieberman's ilk voting against America's wishes.

[rocktivity]

7. DING DING DING! Deadmessengers, you're our grand prize winner!

I don't fault the Democrats who are not really in the majority, for trying...
That's all I've ever wanted them to do. I don't care that this failed, and I wouldn't care if impeachment failed. I'd rather see them make the effort and fail than do nothing at all. Let the Rethugs block, obstruct, and filibuster all they wnat--and THEN let them try and run on it next November!


rocknation

[brentspeak]

2. Never again can the Republicans claim they "support the troops"

Stick this in the face of every Republican Senate member up for reelection. The party of Eisenhower? Long gone dead.

[laconicsax]

6. Of course they can.

When has reality ever stopped them? Didn't you read the headline--it wasn't the Republicans who blocked it, it was the Senate. Dems have the majority in the Senate, so obviously, they blocked the bill and showed how they hate America.

[Pale Blue Dot]

3. Good. They got the Republicans on record.

That's a start.

[msongs]

5. Deceitful headline: should read REPUBLICANS block...... nt

[Purveyor]

9. The Hill: Webb measure on troop rotations stalls, in a new setback for Dems

Senate Republicans blocked on Wednesday a troop readiness plan that once appeared the Democrats’ best chance to force the White House’s hand on the war in Iraq.

A proposal by Sen. Jim Webb (D) to give troops rest periods as long as their combat time failed to clear the 60-vote threshold needed for passage, marking another setback for the Democrats in their efforts to corral enough centrist Republicans to defy President Bush’s Iraq policy. Webb’s fellow Virginian, Sen. John Warner (R), pulled his support for the plan amid brief confusion over his intentions that sparked an apology from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R), who joined with Webb on the readiness amendment, helped Democrats court possible GOP supporters. But the prospects of snaring the three Republicans needed to overcome a filibuster darkened by midday, when undecided senators huddled with Pentagon officials and McCain announced that Warner would offer the minority’s alternative to the Webb plan.

“We’ll look forward to a rather unusual situation here in the Senate: a vote on a resolution by one senator from Virginia and a resolution from another senator from Virginia on the same issue,” McCain said on the floor.

Webb responded with evident shock, having told reporters less than an hour earlier that he hoped Warner would still support the readiness plan. While the GOP alternative would be a nonbinding endorsement of longer rest for troops, Webb said on the floor, “This is a situation that calls for the will of the Congress.”

---eoe---

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/webb-measure-on-tro...

[Highway61]

8. anyone have a vote breakdown? n/t

[mac56]

10. Here you go

"Of the 56 senators voting to advance the measure were 49 Democrats, six Republicans and Vermont Independent Bernard Sanders. Voting against it were 43 Republicans and Connecticut Independent Joseph Lieberman."

[MidwestTransplant]

11. Ummm it's REPUBLICANS FILIBUSTER, NOT SENATE BLOCKS.

[rodeodance]

12. "a sound defeat for Democrats,"-----umm.. just a few more, just a few

[PSPS]

13. The usual RW bias right in the headline

As others have pointed out, the whores at AP uses the term "senate" in the headline when, of course, it should say "republicans."

This is at least the sixth news item lately dealing with something the republicans filibustered where the M$M has decided to slant the impression of the article by intentionally writing a misleading headline like this.

[L0oniX]

14. "Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy." - Henry Kissinger

Gee ...too bad they don't give a crap about the troops. I wonder why? Maybe it is because they agree with Henry Kissinger. Ya think?