Partisan Fight Over Iraq War Erupts on Hill
WASHINGTON, June 15 — The House and the Senate engaged in angry, intensely partisan debate on Thursday over the war in Iraq, as Republicans sought to rally support for the Bush administration's policies and exploit Democratic divisions in an election year shadowed by unease over the war.
It was one of the sharpest legislative clashes yet over the three-year-old conflict, and it came after three days in which President Bush and his aides had sought to portray Iraq as moving gradually toward a stable, functioning democracy, and to portray Democrats as lacking the will to see the conflict through to victory.
In the House, lawmakers moved toward a vote Friday after more than 11 hours of debate on a Republican resolution promising to "complete the mission" in Iraq, prevail in the global fight against terrorism and oppose any "arbitrary date for withdrawal." In the Senate, lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to shelve an amendment calling on the United States to withdraw most troops by the end of this year, although Democrats vowed to revisit the debate next week.more
This really strikes me as a publicity stunt pulled off at the tax payers expense. 11 hours equals roughly 873$ per representative ( $165,200 divided by 52 weeks then divided by 40 hours) times 435 reps equals $379,755 spent arguing about a non binding resolution of no real import. Can we dock their pay?
The only real purpose of this that I see is to get certain vocal Democrats on the record so they can later be quoted by their opposition and to allow certain Republicans a chance to grandstand.
I mean they could have been doing something much more important like, oh I don't know, passing legislation requiring people to have a license in order to wear a speedo in public. They could have even given it an important sounding name like "The Blindness Prevention and Public Decency Act". Which would have been a lot more fun to blog about.
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