There may be a growing battle between Congress and President Bush over the Iraq War strategy, but new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she won't block funding for additional troops.
Pelosi's position, revealed in an exclusive interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer, comes days after a group of senators announced a bipartisan resolution condemning the Bush administration's plan to increase U.S. forces in Iraq by more than 20,000 troops.
While the Senate resolution would be nonbinding, it would send a message to the president, and at least a dozen Republican senators have already offered their support.
In the interview with Sawyer, Pelosi said Democrats in Congress would not be held responsible for putting the soldiers in the troop surge in additional harm's way by blocking funds. She also called the situation in Iraq a "tragedy" and a "stark blunder."
Mighty nice of her considering the President already had approved funds IN HAND for the surge.
As I said the other day...Big Talk From Little People.
Fact is, the President decides what the policy on Iraq is, and according to Barney Frank the Democrats are very aware of their limited options.
OLBERMANN: Are you fearful that if you were to cut the money off, if you were to actually refuse to bankroll it, as a Congress, that the money would be spent, there'd still be money spent to send them there, without protecting them, or...
[REP. BARNEY] FRANK: Well, that's the problem. It could be spent. The fact is that the Pentagon budget could--other money could be taken from other purposes and spend it. You couldn't do it just by voting no money. You would have to say--you'd have to pass something that said, None of the [money] that we're voting can be used for this. But it's too late for that. We've already voted for the defense budget for the year....
He already has hundreds of billions of dollars legally in his possession to spend. So there is, in fact, no way, I think, to cut off the money, unless we were to pass a law and he would veto it. So we are frustrated in that extent.
Based on Frank's assessment, cutting off funds sounds like a truly pointless crusade for Democrats. It won't work, the base will remain frustrated, and it could alienate even some moderate anti-war voters. Which leaves driving public opinion--and making Congressional Republicans as uncomfortable as possible--the Democrats' best, if limited, option.
Grandma Nancy Pelosi also knows this, which makes her assertion that she will not cut off funding for the war, here in this MSNBC article and in the ABC exclusive, another "feel good" and "lets not admit we have no other options", statement, that is made because as per Franks assertions above, they cannot do it anyway.
So Congress can keep symbolically voting on nonbinding resolutions to make themselves "look good", while the President continues to try to achieve success.
What Congress and the Senate need to remember in all of this, is that, "we the people" do not forget, especially the elephants which have a considerably good memory and the world wide web at our fingertips to continue reminding people of thier actions at this time in history.
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