FEINGOLD: "NO ONE ELSE SHOULD DIE ... TO GIVE POLITICAL COMFORT"

[sabra]

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/05/02/179237.aspx

Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold, one of the first to offer a bill pulling troops out of Iraq and often considered a barometer of liberal thinking, today says he will not support any new war funding bill doesn't included binding language for troop withdrawal. In an article he wrote for the liberal website The Huffington Post, he says, "We can't keep giving in to this Administration on Iraq."

"The ink on the President's veto is barely dry, and already, a lot of Washington insiders - including some Democrats -- are saying Congress should just give in to the President," he said. "(B)acking down is not the answer. No one else should die in Iraq to give political comfort to dealmakers in Washington."

Feingold also dismissed the concept of non-binding benchmarks as a solution. "We're long past the point when just setting benchmarks was enough... And if those benchmarks aren't binding, then they are nothing more than suggestions. The American people aren't asking us to offer suggestions to the Iraqis -- they are asking us to bring our troops out of Iraq."

The Wisconsin senator surprise some insiders when he signed onto the just-vetoed bill which only set a "goal" of most troop withdrawal by April 2008. He's also authored separate legislation that ends MOST funding for the war within the same timeframe. "The next step to ending the war isn't to give in, but to step up the pressure on the President," he wrote.

HP link here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-russ-feingold/after-the-veto_b_47462.html

[EnviroBat]

1. DAMN STRAIGHT! n/t