CNN reports that Congressional Democrats are backing off of legislation to bring the troops home. For an antiwar person, this reeks of power politics--putting party ambitions ahead of the lives of the troops on the ground in Iraq.
Congressional Democrats have put on the back burner legislation ordering troops home from Iraq and turned their attention to war-related proposals that Republicans are finding hard to reject.
The legislative agenda marks a dramatic shift for party leaders who vowed repeated votes to end combat and predicted Republicans would eventually join them. But with Democrats still lacking enough votes to bring troops home, the party runs the risk of concluding its first year in control of Congress with little to show for its tough anti-war rhetoric.
"We can no longer approach the discussion on Iraq as a partisan issue," said Rep. John Tanner, a conservative Democrat from Tennessee. "Our soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen and guardsmen aren't fighting as Democrats or Republicans but as Americans."
For me, this puts a bad taste in my mouth and makes me wonder if putting a "Republican-lite" Democrat in the White House, House, or Senate will make any difference. This is a time that Progressive Democrats need to come out of the woodwork and contest candidates who have been reluctant to take a strong stance to end the war.
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