According to the 1/31 edition of the Evans-Novak Political Report, which I just received via e-mail:
...senior administration officials and Republican leaders in Congress privately say there cannot be U.S. boots on the ground or blood being spilled in Iraq when 2008 begins if Republicans are to have a chance in next year's elections. That effectively sets a December 2007 deadline for getting out.
Meanwhile, though, Novak writes that the Senate is acting as "the saucer that cools the boiling beverages served up in the House" with regard to Iraq. According to Novak:
The Democratic plan was for Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joseph Biden (D-Del.) to sit down over the weekend with Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) and hammer out a consensus bipartisan resolution opposing the troop surge. But not even the influx of anti-war protesters on Saturday -- who vandalized the Capitol and the Capitol South Metro station -- could focus the Senate on finishing this work. Warner, who has been making backroom deals for 28 years in the Senate, informed Biden late last Thursday that the "will of the Senate" should be determined in "open" session. This effectively killed the Democrats' hopes of passing a Biden-crafted anti-surge resolution. Such a proposal now cannot get the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster (and could even fall short of the 50 senators needed for a simple majority). It remains unclear whether any resolution will pass the Senate.
The bottom line, according to Novak, is that "The U.S. Senate is a sluggish, quirky and madly frustrating body that slows all progress and stops most legislation in its tracks." Ahhhh...checks and balances, aren't they grand?
By the way, what's the deal with this "vandalism" story? I hadn't heard anything about that and find it hard to believe. Does anyone know?
[UPDATE: I just did a Google News search and found this, by a right-wing Cornell student claiming that "The steps of the Capitol Building were spray painted by demonstrators." I also found this by an eyewitness, refuting the "vandalism" story.]
Thanks John Kerry!
I wrote a letter to Republican senators and sent it to their email address (have about a dozen more senators left)in which I quoted Novak and then told them that they didn't even have six months to get onboard with the Dems on this issue of getting our troops home sooner rather than later.
I gave them a three-point plan for their redemption--and reminded them that a fillibuster would be seen as immature and mean spirited--
I think that it would be great if more of us contacted the Republican senators in response to Novak's comments--these newer ones are even more egregious.
Ruth Fischer