SocraticGadfly: Novak right on Dems and Iraq – 10 months ago

March 08, 2008

Novak right on Dems and Iraq – 10 months ago

Boosted from an old blog post; last May, Robert Novak said that if Congressional Democrats couldn’t pass a real Iraq bill by summer 2007, they never would. Well, they haven’t. Read on


Forget about 2008, he said back then:
President Bush has won a rare showdown victory over Congress simply because Democrats felt they could not afford the risk of letting a war in progress run out of money. The Democrats’ problem is that this demonstrates conclusively that they are all talk on the Iraq War — a fact that their base will quickly realize. There is no way for Congress to end the war short of cutting off funds, and to cut off funds without the consent of the President is to invite a repeat of exactly the same showdown the Democrats have now already lost.

Novak went on to say that if Democrats wouldn’t do more then, they certainly wouldn’t this year:
The bottom line is that Democrats have passed on their best chance to end the Iraq War. If they are not willing to take a risk here in a non-election year in order to force Bush to end the war, then they certainly do not have what it takes to cut off war funds in the coming presidential election year.

And, he was right. Apply the same logic to the FISA bill, and we know what’s going to happen.

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