Reading the thoughtful debate and comments in a number of Iraq War Supplemental diaries and posts today, one thought occured to me.
This may be pie in the sky, but, if done, I think it could make a lot of sense and be very effective.
The Democratic caucus in the House and Senate should make Senator Jim Webb the official Democratic point person on Iraq.
Let me explain.
The word on the street is that Reid and Pelosi are in a tough spot. All eyes are on:
a) what they are going to do next in terms of a Bill
b) how in the hell are they going to keep the Democratic caucus together
In some of the debates today, awol and arubyan made a similar point. In effect the Democrats are hampered by the fact that there are 250+ of us with a lot to lose versus one President with nothing to lose. As arubyan puts it:
... You can't have a Congress full of cowboys. It's an oxymoron.
Only one person at a time can be Shane.
That got me thinking. We do have a Shane when it comes to Iraq. His name is Jim Webb.
Here's what I'm proposing. Congressional Democrats should make their next step in response to Bush's veto a unanimous or near-unanivous vote to appoint Senator Jim Webb as the pointperson to negotiate directly with the President on Iraq. Jim Webb would be both our chief negotiator and chief spokesperson, the public face of our effort to break the impasse with the President and the GOP Congress. In effect we would reduce our fundamental disadvantage...keeping a diverse coalition together...and turn it into the Republican's worst nightmare.
The more I think about this, the more it occurs to me that this one move would make Bush and Cheney shit bricks.
- it would communicate a united Democratic Congressional delegation
- it would utterly crush most GOP talking points (Jim Webb isn't going to "abandon our troops"...his son's over there...nor is anybody going to buy that Jim Webb is for "failure" for America anywhere or anytime.)
- it would nip in the bud this development where the 08' Democratic Presidential contenders are now getting involved in the actual political process here (which I think is unwise because it smacks of opportunism)
- finally, it would give Bush and Cheney and every last Congressional Republican one hell of a political shock: a popular, well-spoken, tough Democrat from Virginia who is a proven political giant-slayer walking up the White House steps alone.
They do not want to have a face off with Jim Webb.
Personally, I'm pretty convinced that if the Democrats did this, we would get our troops off the streets of Iraq's cities sooner rather than later and in a way that would win the support of the vast majority of Americans. I also think we would kick some GOP butt.
You may agree or disagree, let me know what you think below.
If you need any reassurance visit GregP's excellent diary from last night, or just read Webb's statement below:
Congress exercised its constitutional responsibility this week by appropriating more than $100 billion to fully support our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, the President chose not to cash that check. It is up to him to explain to the American people why.
We won this war four years ago. The question is when we end the occupation. This bill called for a much-needed shift in our approach to Iraq. The United States military is not going to change the societal makeup of Iraq. And the Malaki government is not going to bring peace among Iraq's competing factions without the strong, overt, diplomatic cooperation of other countries in this region. And this bill called for just an approach.
I have always said that we need to support the troops through leadership that is equal to the sacrifices we are asking them to make. It is time for a new approach in Iraq, one that displays smart diplomatic leadership in the region. We must bring this occupation to a proper conclusion that will increase our ability to focus on international terrorism, increase the stability in the region and allow us to focus on our strategic interests elsewhere in the world.
Tell me you don't want this man facing off with the President on the issue of Iraq.