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Friday, December 28, 2007

Did Democrats Slip Veto Bait Into The Defense Bill?

We all know the Democrats want to deny our troops in Iraq the funds they need to complete their mission there.  Mostly because, for Democrats, victory in Iraq is the worst possible scenario when it comes to their political agenda.  They have invested nearly all of their political capital in the idea of Iraq as a lost cause, and they simply can’t afford to be wrong on that.  So they can’t let us win.

Unfortunately, they also can’t come right out and deny our troops funding for the war either.  With the majority of the public fiercely opposed to the concept, doing so would be political suicide.  So they need to deny our troops funds, or at least delay those funds, in an oblique manner.

And one way of doing that is to include in war funding legislation some “veto bait” that is sure to draw the ire of the President.  That way, when the bill gets held up, it’s the President’s fault and not the Democrats’.  At least, that’s how they can spin it anyway.

CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush plans to veto a sweeping defense policy bill on grounds that it would derail Iraq’s efforts to rebuild its country, the White House said Friday.

Bush’s action, which apparently caught congressional leaders off guard, centers on one provision in the legislation dealing with Iraqi assets. The legislation would permit plaintiffs’ lawyers immediately to freeze Iraqi funds and would expose Iraq to “massive liability in lawsuits concerning the misdeeds of the Saddam Hussein regime,” said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel.

“The new democratic government of Iraq, during this crucial period of reconstruction, cannot afford to have its funds entangled in such lawsuits in the United States,” Stanzel said in a statement.

Bush is absolutely 100% right on this.  We simply cannot let Iraq’s rebuilding be set back by a bunch of American trial lawyers trying to exact a pound of flesh for the misdeeds of Saddam Hussein.  Not only is the current regime in Iraq not responsible for what Saddam did, trying to hold them responsible for what that monster did go a long way toward ensuring that Iraq does not become a flourishing democracy but instead slips back into the hands of strongman tyrants not all that unlike Saddam.

Bush is trying to protect the Iraqi people.  The Democrats aren’t, and in fact are actually trying to expose the Iraqi people to liabilities that aren’t theirs to carry purely for political purposes.

Comments

The legislation would permit plaintiffs’ lawyers immediately to freeze Iraqi funds and would expose Iraq to “massive liability in lawsuits concerning the misdeeds of the Saddam Hussein regime,”

The trial lawyer lobby rears its ugly, greedy head!

Kevin on December 28, 2007 at 11:10 am

Congress was given a very clear mandate. Congress’s approval rating has hit bottom because they chickened out and did not stop funding the war. All they had to do is say, win or lose, the war is wrong and we will no longer fund it. They would have been supported by the American people, Bush and Cheney would have been impeached, contractors and investment bankers would no longer be making money on our soldiers’ dead bodies, and the war would be over.

Instead, they became worried more about political fallout, staying in office, and this is what will backfire on them.

ews48 on December 28, 2007 at 11:18 am

Congress was given a very clear mandate.

To end the “culture of corruption?”
Islamist, psychotic dirt bags have been at war with western civilization for some time now; it was only after 9/11 that any response put into place.

Kevin on December 28, 2007 at 11:41 am
Avatar for J.R.

All they had to do is say, win or lose, the war is wrong and we will no longer fund it. They would have been supported by the American people, Bush and Cheney would have been impeached, contractors and investment bankers would no longer be making money on our soldiers’ dead bodies, and the war would be over.

ews, I think your idea of who the American people are and what they believe is severely misguided.

J.R. on December 28, 2007 at 11:46 am
Avatar for graybeard

We all know the Democrats want to deny our troops in Iraq the funds they need to complete their mission there.

Oh, you wish it were that way rightie, but that doesn’t make it so. Democrats oppose the continuation of a failed policy and deny funding on that basis. Republicans use this “denying the troops” meme to pander to those that are too stupid to understand that withholding funds is a matter of policy disagreement; and the public overwhelming supports the Democrats’ position.

You lot are so profoundly in denial taht you’ll stand by and watch our kids getting killed and our treasury drained, simply because you hate to be proven wrong. It’s your and your president’s ego that’s at stake, and you hang on by your fingernails praying for absolution.

I’m here to tell you that it ain’t gonna happen. You cannot spin Iraq as anything other than disaster, any which-way you look at it.

graybeard on December 28, 2007 at 04:12 pm

Really makes you want to put the Democrats in charge, doesn’t it?

God save us from these cowards…

golfmann on December 28, 2007 at 05:14 pm

graybeard - Oh, you wish it were that way rightie, but that doesn’t make it so. Democrats oppose the continuation of a failed policy and deny funding on that basis.

And that’s different from the way Rob said it how? You’re splitting hairs.

You lot are so profoundly in denial taht you’ll stand by and watch our kids getting killed and our treasury drained, simply because you hate to be proven wrong.

Insulting. One: our military are not “kids”. Two: they willfully signed up. The vast majority of them support the mission. Three: our treasury is getting drained from socialist programs, not the military. Check the numbers. Four: your last point is simply an insult.

It’s your and your president’s ego that’s at stake, and you hang on by your fingernails praying for absolution.

Wrong. Our ego has nothing to do with this. A fucking nation called Iraq is at stake. You’re playing games and denying what we have been plainly saying for the last four and a half years.

I’m here to tell you that it ain’t gonna happen. You cannot spin Iraq as anything other than disaster, any which-way you look at it.

Only if you ignore the fact that Saddam’s army was felled in three weeks (success); Saddam caught and killed (success); Saddam’s successors caught and killed (success); three national votes (success); a working national constitution hammered out in record time (success); tons of al Quada and other terrorist groups killed in scores (success); shall I go on or do you get the point yet? You probably have no clue still because this shit has been stated over and over again for years and yet you deny the points.

You don’t have to agree with us graybeard, but to deny the points we have been making just paints you as an opportunistic liar who will to say anything and ignore everything.

likwidshoe on December 28, 2007 at 09:50 pm

I thought the president is wacking out the Pork with a veto.  This time it’s bait? And for the first time he gets 100% for being right? Your tax dollars total about 900 Billion, that’s a B.  I say we Surge congress, let the troops go in wearing underwear and flip-flops, bang some heads together and tell em that from the folks putting up with their crap and making good on their expense account.  About eight more months boys!

Chief on December 29, 2007 at 05:55 pm
Avatar for Lee S Gliddon Jr

The Dems are trying anything they can to make America look inept. ANYTHING. This Bill...then the tapes! If we had the tapes and released them for viewing...we would be condemned for being in brach of the Geneva Convention. No image or picture of a prisoner can be shown…
So, what will Hand Up Harry Reid think of next!

Lee S Gliddon Jr on December 30, 2007 at 06:45 pm
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