Giacomo over at "Joust The Facts" has a medium-length post on the attempt to link an Iraq War pullout with unrelated legislation, and the possible consequences. His is a good summary, which I will not recreate here.
Republicans are hardly in a position to be indignant about tacked-on legislation; this has been SOP for both parties for decades. They try and bury pork or loopholes in some legislation sure to pass. In this case it is the opposite: because Bush is sure to veto the legislation as long as the withdrawal demand is in it, the Democrats are going for death-by-a-thousand-cuts. He vetoed clean water. He vetoed raises for policemen. He vetoed kitties and puppies. I have no idea whether it will work, as I am not good at those "national mood" sorts of evaluations.
I am good at noticing the simple things, however. The Iraq pullout is completely unrelated to this legislation, and smacks of dishonesty. This is an excellent example of how low things can go when Congress adopts this tack-on tactic as just the way business is done.
Election by sortition. It's looking better all the time.
I understand that often the politically shrewd thing to do to your opposition is to put "poison pills" in legislation to twist their undies in a bunch deciding what to do.
ReplyDeleteI also think it's reprehensible to do that in a matter of war, particularly one as contentious and in the forefront of the American debate as this one is
Thanks for the link.