Congressional Dems find more streamlined way to cave to Bush
Concerned that they cannot cave to the Bush administration fast enough, Congressional Democrats are coming up with a way to streamline the process of giving Bush whatever he wants:
Speaking to reporters here Thursday, both House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) made comments suggesting they believed the party should move away from last year's strategy of attaching their efforts to force Iraq troop withdrawal onto funding bills for the war.
Instead, the two issues -- funding and withdrawal language -- could move separately, preventing opponents from accusing Democrats of abandoning or starving the military.
"The problem with -- in my opinion, this is my view, speaking for Steny Hoyer -- always attaching [withdrawal language] to funding issues ... [is] that is subject on both sides of the Capitol to concerns about supporting the troops," Hoyer said.
"If you pass and debate policy changes separate and apart from funding support, a) I think we could pass that through the House, and b) I would hope that the Senate would have an extensive debate on that."
If Congressman Hoyer had been speaking truthfully, the above quote would have been worded like this:
"We don't have the leadership or spine necessary to put a stop to Bush's madness, since our leaders in the House and Senate are terrified of being called names by Republicans," Congressman Hoyer did not say. "Besides, we have a lot of other important issues to address, and all this time spent on voting for withdrawal is just a distraction, since it won't go anywhere," he did not add. "Instead of voting for withdrawal, then having that vote shot down, then giving the President a blank check in the end, we've decided to eliminate everything but the last step."