Steny Hoyer leads the Democratic retreat on funding for Iraq

[babylonsister]

:argh:

Steny Hoyer leads the Democratic retreat on funding for Iraq

by Weldon Berger | Dec 8 2007


House Majority "leader" Steny Hoyer has announced that Democrats are preparing to abandon attempts to impose conditions on new funding for the occupation of Iraq. The Washington Post is reporting that Hoyer, Senate Majority "Leader" Harry Reid and other top Democrats have caved on imposing a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq in exchange for a presidential promise not to veto an appropriations bill containing modest increases in non-military spending. And Roy Blunt, the House Minority Whip, says he doesn't think the president even needs to countenance the additional spending: "There's no reason to make a bad bargain. The president holds all the cards."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was crowing over the Democratic collapse. "Behind closed doors, McConnell has expressed confidence in the Republican negotiating position, telling his GOP colleagues Thursday that, by holding firm, they had moved from a Democratic offer of no money for the war to at least $30 billion, according to a Republican in the meeting ... One GOP aide said that the Democrats made a bargaining mistake last month when Reid signaled that the Democrats were willing to halve their initial request of $22 billion in additional domestic spending, setting "boundaries" for the current debate in which $11 billion serves as the new ceiling."

About 90 House members — the entire House Progressive Caucus, several other Democrats (including John Conyers) and GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul — have vowed not to vote for any bill that authorizes funding for the occupation without setting a deadline for withdrawal. This means that Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi will have to corral nearly the entire Republican side to pass whatever Vichy-like measure they ultimately devise. With many Republicans engaged in what the Post coyly describes as "trying to reestablish their credentials as small-government conservatives", the Democratic leadership will likely have to either cut back further on their spending plans or ensure that whatever additional funds they preserve lean heavily toward pork for the Republicans.

This must be the important labor that Conyers had in mind when he told Detroit columnist Jack Lessenberry that impeaching Bush and Cheney is unfeasible because, in Lessenberry's words, "Nobody would be able to work on stopping the war, or any of the dozens of other matters that need immediate attention."

Hoyer came up with a marvellous quote to explain the Democratic collapse, about which he expresses no regret whatsoever.

more...

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/11462

[SoFlaJet]

1. wow there's a big surprise

Murtha should have been the guy-Steny Hoyer is all politics all the time-worry about the next election first and foremost never take any chances that might jeopardize that

[Warren Stupidity]

2. I wake up every morning anticipating another capitulation

another sure defeat, another sell out, another cave in, another powder drying session, another pink tutu parade, another meaningless gesture. And I am never disappointed.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. The span of time between their "tough" bills and cave-ins seem to be growing shorter.

But, the folks who adhere to the P.T. Barnum philosophy of politics still support them.

[Robbien]

4. Steney Hoyer is in favor of the Iraq occupation. This is not a retreat

just the next step in the Blue Dog game. Throw progressives a bone by putting up a sham of a timetable bill while at the same time re-writing the bill in collaboration with GOPers in secret behind closed door meetings.

This bill is the end result Hoyer/BlueDogs/GOPs planned all along.

[izquierdista]

5. Leads the retreat

Now I can place Steny Hoyer with the great "leaders" of history. Like Gen. Custer, who led his troops at the Battle of Little Big Horn. Or Gen. Paulus, who led his troops to their objective, Stalingrad.

[Wizard777]

6. They may be trying a new approach to gaining a Veto.

Packing it with Pork. Bush's Budget office has already warned Congress that if the bill has earmarks Bush will Veto it. Remember Bush's policy. The Iraqi's get everything they need, want, and more. Not one damned thing for you Americans! Bush is the Grinch that Stole America.

[marmar]

7. Steny or Rahm ..... I don't know which one is the bigger cancer to Dems....

n/t

[OzarkDem]

8. Can we raise taxes on members of Congress

and the administration who support pissing money away in Iraq? If they want the war, let them pay for it.

[demnan]

9. This is also the guy who, on the House Floor

led the effort to prevent impeachment. Please if you live in Maryland, would you vote against this guy or run against this guy? There is no way this man should be in the Congress, much less in a leadershp role in our party.

[dysfunctional press]

10. i give up. until the dlc dinos are PURGED from the party, i am DONE with politics AND voting.

it's a complete waste of my time and effort, as long as those treasonous corporatist bastards are running the show.

[LWolf]

11. Can we all stop pretending that Hoyer and the other "top democrats"

mentioned are worthy of our time, $$, votes, or support?

[Cha]

12. At first I read this as

steny was going to retreat from "funding Iraq" and I thought, "Ohh, steny's doin' something principled, What?!"

But, alas, no..it's the same ol' stinky..same ol same ol.

More dying, more killing..and m$$$$$M-bushits march on.

[acmavm]

13. One of the biggest contradictions in the English language: Blue Dog

Democrats.

These people are not Democrats.

It's like the term government intelligence (as Bullwinkle once noted).