Iraq Debate Behing Them, House Democrats Turn to… Iraq?

Was it just last week that the House passed legislation to force a ‘responsible redeployment’ from Iraq? Was it just this morning that the Senate demonstrated that they’re far short of having the votes to overcome a filibuster and get a vote on a measure to force the president’s hand on Iraq? You might think that it was pointless to schedule more votes on Iraq. Apparently, you’d be wrong, since the House is apparently going to hold more votes next week on Iraq:

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (Md.) hinted on Tuesday that the House may consider Iraq-related legislation again next week. “We’re not skipping Iraq. We think Iraq is critically important,” Hoyer said. “I would imagine it’s possible that we would be scheduling legislation either as an amendment or as a free-standing bill next week on some particular facet.” The House voted last week on a measure to withdraw most troops from Iraq by April. After the vote, Pelosi pledged to bring “an array of legislation” to the floor to challenge the administration’s war strategy.

This vote is so clearly pointless, it seems almost silly to repeat that war policy should not be conducted this way. The House’s vote to withdraw last week was the sixth such vote this year. It’s clear that Democrats are unable (and actually, unwilling) to force a change in policy, so no point is served–except to kowtow to the surrender wing of the party. And while the war is supposed to be a critical issue deserving of sober debate, House Republicans have not even been informed yet what issue the Dems plan to debate. House Republican Whip Roy Blunt had this to say in response to queries from the WWS:

“This is like a legislative train wreck. No meaningful action. It is kind of like the last episode of the Sopranos where the new leader gets sworn in and the screen goes to black and nothing is happening.” “You can see from the Democrat approach on these Iraq issues they don’t intend to create opportunity for any real debate”

We’re not sure if Blunt has seen an otherwise unreleased alternate ending to the Sopranos, but we get the picture.

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