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"Q: You disagree with the assessment President Bush and Gen. Petraeus put forth
this week. How do you think the course should be changed? A: All you have to do
is look at what they said. Nothing has changed since the surge started. Today,
now we learn that 1 million Iraqis have been killed since the war started. A
million. That's pretty hard to comprehend: 3,800 Americans, 30,000 wounded. More
than 2,000 double amputees."
"At one point, as [Reps.] Moran, Tauscher and Rep. Jon Porter (R-Nev.) were
heading to lunch in the fortified Green Zone, an American urgently tried to get
their attention, apparently to voice concerns about the war effort, the
participants said. Security whisked the man away before he could make his
point…But even such tight control could not always filter out the bizarre world
inside the barricades. At one point, the three were trying to discuss the state
of Iraqi security forces with Iraq’s national security adviser, Mowaffak
al-Rubaie, but the large, flat-panel television set facing the official proved
to be a distraction. Rubaie was watching children’s cartoons.When Moran asked
him to turn it off, Rubaie protested with a laugh and said, “But this is my
favorite television show,” Moran recalled."
"After not being able to persuade the Republicans to agree with Reid’s proposal
for a springtime troop withdrawal, Senator Harry Reid said he will compromise
with them. Reid said, 'I don't think we have to think that our way is the only
way. I'm not saying, 'Republicans, do what we want to do.' Just give me
something that you think you would like to do, that accomplishes some or all of
what I want to do.'"
Every day that we continue to stick to the President's flawed strategy is a day
that America is not as secure as it could be. As the intelligence community
reported in another NIE just weeks ago, America's attention is distracted from
Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, which has regenerated its capacity to its pre-9/11
levels. That is why it is so essential that this September, Republicans join
with Democrats to change course in Iraq and work to restore our nation's
security.
"A day after the bridge collapsed in Minneapolis, Sen. Patty Murray joined other
Senate Democrats to accuse the Bush administration of failing to maintain the
country's bridges. And she had a dynamite anecdote: 'I have learned of a bridge
where school buses have to stop and let all of the children out and pick them up
on the other side because of weight restrictions.' The Hill reports that the
anecdote was quickly repeated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: 'The
children have to walk across the bridge!' he declared in outrage."
"'The White House's effort to prevent General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker
from testifying openly and candidly before Congress about the situation in Iraq
is unacceptable. Not only does it contradict the law President Bush himself
signed in May, but it appears to be yet another politically driven attempt to
avoid giving Congress and the American people an honest and open assessment of a
war we can all see is headed in the wrong direction."
"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has rewritten his signature ethics reform bill to strip it of meaningful earmark reform, a remarkable development for a Democrat who promised to clean up Washington. Text of the bill was released this morning and is available at the Porkbusters website. Senators Tom Coburn (R.-Okla.) and Jim DeMint (R.-S.C.) have promised a fight."
"Arlen Specter is a senior United States senator who expects to be allowed
his say on the Senate floor. So he bristled when Senator Harry Reid, the
majority leader, brusquely cut him off at the end of the Iraq debate.
“The leadership is setting a dictatorial tone,” Mr. Specter, Republican
of Pennsylvania, said Thursday, still furious over his treatment the day before.
“Senators didn’t get here to be pushed around.”
It may seem small-minded to bicker over a few words at the end of a 24-hour debate. But the clash between the two veteran senators is evidence of a larger breakdown in relations in the Senate, a deterioration in cooperation that is hobbling the Senate’s ability to get things
done. The situation is not likely to improve with a presidential election on the
horizon."
"Playing hard ball. Reid just pulled the Defense Authorization bill off the
floor. If the GOP Senators want to continue filibustering meaningful Iraq
legislation, Reid won't proceed."
"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the
outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 'incompetent' during an
interview Tuesday with a group of liberal bloggers, a comment that was never
reported. "
"Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is the only presidential candidate in Congress to
have missed a major vote on the Iraq war this year, and his absences are not
sitting well with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
Liz
Oxhorn, a spokeswoman for Reid, told The Hill, “Sen. McCain has spent
considerable time defending the president on Iraq and catering to the Republican
base on immigration, but has only managed to show up for four of the last 14
Iraq votes and parachute into [yesterday’s] immigration press conference at the
last minute. Who is the real John McCain?”"
