Obey's Responsibility on Iraq
KagroX writes a great post on what Rep. David Obey (D-WI) needs to do now in the Iraq supplemental funding bill conference:
With the bill now heading into a House-Senate conference, and rumors floating that the Senate conferees may seek to strip the much-vaunted timelines and withdrawal triggers from the bill, it seems to me that Chairman Obey has a unique obligation to insure that the teeth of the bill -- such as they are -- remain in the final conference report.Nobody, as far as I can recall, was ever pressing Congress to "make it illegal to proceed with the war." While that certainly would be a welcome development, it's an innovation created and touted by Obey, and offered unsolicited by him as a defense against the "idiot liberals" who were working to end the war but were, in his mind, "screwing it up."
To each question the activists posed, Obey's every answer was premised on the same objection: "That's not how it works."
Well, now we're seeing how it does work, Mr. Obey. . . . The burden to make sure it remains "illegal to proceed with the war," at least according to the terms of the bill that emerges from conference, is yours.
KagroX's point is entirely missed by MYDD's Chris Bowers, who had no qualms in whipping the Out of Iraq Caucus to vote for the incredibly flawed House bill, but now objects to KagroX pressuring Obey to hold the line. No one doubts that Obey is a great Congressman dedicated to ending the war. What is at issue is whether Obey's stated strategy will work. As Kagro says, for it to work, the binding timeline, such as it is, must survive conference. If Obey's argument meant anything, then Rep. Obey has to fight hard in the conference to keep binding timelines in the bill. That is KagroX's point. How can that be quarreled with?
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