Wednesday, September 19, 2007

BREAKING--Webb Amendment FAILS-- Democrats having a bad day

Watching C-Span, I just saw that the Webb Amendment only garnered 56 votes and was withdrawn.(Final vote 56-44)

Roll call can be found here. (Added in)

I will bring you the roll call when it is released.

The next Amendment is now going to come up for a vote and while waiting for that, lets recap.

Earlier an amendment to give enemy combatants the right to Habeas Corpus was also defeated

Earlier we posted about John Warner, who had changed his position, about supporting the Webb Amendment and would instead a propose a resolution which would give "a sense of the senate" and not be binding. The left side of the Blogosphere has been whining about that all day.

The proposal, developed by Mr. Webb, has represented the best chance yet for Senate Democrats hoping to shift the course of the war to get the 60 votes they need to prevent a filibuster.

Mr. Webb said he expected the Senate to vote on the measure this afternoon, and that he believed he had “a very good shot” of winning over enough Republicans, even if he loses the support of Senator John W. Warner, a fellow Virginian and one of the Republican Party’s most respected voices on military affairs. Without Mr. Warner’s vote, the Democrats would need to win over at least four Republicans who voted against the measure in July.

Shortly after 1 p.m. Eastern time today, in a speech on the Senate floor, Mr. Warner heaped praise on Mr. Webb, but then delivered a sharp blow. “I endorsed it” in July, when it last came up for a vote, Mr. Warner said of the Webb proposal, but “now I intend to cast a vote against it.”

In explaining his decision, Mr. Warner said he had been persuaded, at a meeting earlier in the day with senior military officials, that the Webb plan could not be carried out without causing havoc for the armed forces, potentially lengthening soldiers’ tours in Iraq.

“It is a change of vote for me, I recognize that,” he said. “I changed that vote only after lot of very careful and analytical work with the uniformed side of the Department of Defense.”

Mr. Warner’s view signaled near-certain defeat for the proposal.


The Webb Amendment PDF can be found here.

This was Jim Webb's attempt at to resuscitate the John Murtha "slow bleed" attempt on our military and to try to micromanage the war.

We here at Wake up America understand our troops need time to rest in between deployments, but we also understand we are a nation at war, which the Democratic politicians seem to be incapable of getting through their thick skulls.


(ADDITIONAL THOUGHT--We also understand what Robert Gates has stated which is that if the Webb amendment would have passed, and our troops would spend equal time home as abroad, then that would force our military to EXTEND the tours past the 15 months they are at now.

That isn't helpful at all.)

The buzz all day has been about the vote on the Webb Amendment, which Defense Secretary Robert Gates had already said, if passed, he would recommend the president veto it and the senate, which could not just get 60 votes, certainly would not have been able to override a veto.

Expect the left to throw the hissy fits they are so good at throwing over this.

One has to wonder what they expected to happen had the Webb Amendment passed? It was assured a veto and they had nowhere near enough votes to override the veto.

They knew, this whole time, this entire day was a waste of time so it would "appear" that they were actually trying to do something that has a chance to succeed, the whole time knowing it didn't.

All this to appease the far left portion of their base.

I will update as soon as the next Amendment has been voted on and the numbers are in.

Second Amendment (McCain amendment) has been withdrawn, it only garnered 55-45 vote.

Roll call can be found here. (Added in)

Completely wasted day in the Senate.



[Update] McCains words: "Over stressed, over deployed, weary, but not defeated, that's our military today," said Mr. McCain. "The Webb amendment could easily bring about their defeat."




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