Second Republican Congressman calls for Iraq pullout to be considered

For the first time ever, my congressman has done something courageous instead of following whatever Tom Delay tells him to do.  Howard Coble, the Republican representing the North Carolina's 6th district has said the U.S. should consider pulling out of Iraq.

Coble is one of the first members of Congress to suggest a withdrawal publicly.
The 10-term congressman said in an interview with the News & Record of Greensboro that he's "fed up with picking up the newspaper and reading that we've lost another five or 10 of our young men and women in Iraq."

"What we have are Iraqis killing Iraqis and American troops," Coble said. "All I'm saying is that a troop withdrawal ought to be an option. It ought to be placed on the table for consideration.
"I'm going to keep talking about this," he said.
Coble, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, said he may broach the idea to the panel.

The only other stir Coble has recently made was when he said that Japanese interment wasn't so bad, so he's not exactley a moderate.

Hopefully this will be the beginning of more and more criticisms and calls for withdrawl from Republicans, because that is the only thing this administration might listen to.  

Kudos to my congressman. Now if he would just change his mind on every other issue, I might vote for him. Edited to add- Representative James Leach of Iowa was the first Republican to call for withdrawl more than a year ago.

•  A crack here,

  a crack there--look at the suface of the conservative pond splinter. A crack here, a crack there.

  by agincour on Sun Jan 09, 2005 at 06:58:39 PM PDT

•  Leach voted against war resolution

  Leach was one of very few Republicans in Congress to vote against the war authorization in 2002. He represents a Dem-leaning district, which had changed substantially because of post-2000 redistricting, and was in a tough campaign at the time.

  He was trying to show off his moderation in 2002. It worked, and he barely squeaked through. He even carried the "People's Republic of Johnson County," home of Iowa City, which is Iowa's most liberal county by far.

  by desmoinesdem on Sun Jan 09, 2005 at 07:00:25 PM PDT

  •  question

    Is Leach genuinely a moderate, or does he mysteriously become one just before election time?

    by pine on Sun Jan 09, 2005 at 07:20:27 PM PDT

    •  Leach is a reasonable

      decent man who can be convinced on environmental, banking and foreign policy issues. He's been punished by DeLay folr his independence, Not that he's a flaming liberal or anything.

      by bankbane on Sun Jan 09, 2005 at 07:26:34 PM PDT

•  They're no longer afraid

  Bush is basically un unpopular  lame duck president.  He has less influence over rank and file Repubs than he did the first term, where everyone was compelled to support him because of the upcoming reelection.

  by pontificator on Sun Jan 09, 2005 at 07:03:20 PM PDT

•  Tip Jar

  :)

  by dwb115 on Sun Jan 09, 2005 at 07:12:51 PM PDT

•  Is this a setup

  The thing is that after the elections the media and the Republicans are going to pretend that everything is fine in Iraq. So maybe he's trying to con his constituents into believing that we're pulling out.

  by Turlough on Sun Jan 09, 2005 at 07:31:56 PM PDT

  •  that doesn't make any sense

    He's basically saying that things are going badly in Iraq, he's sick of our soldiers getting killed, and that we need to think seriously about withdrawal. How is that a "setup," and how would it possibly benefit the Republicans? He'll probably get bitchslapped by the Hammer.

    I will say this: it may or may not be feasible to pull our troops out of Iraq, but it has to at least be talked about, which means we all have to shout it out as loudly and as often as possible. I'm still in the "we broke it, we have to try to fix it" camp, but it looks more and more like that's not possible, and all we're doing is killing people on both sides.

    When you go to war yes, you do end up killing people, but usually you at least have something to show for all the carnage. Not only do we have nothing to show for it, but we seem to have more and more nothing to show for it every damn day.

    by snookybeh on Sun Jan 09, 2005 at 07:57:07 PM PDT

•  The pullout is coming

  And the charge will be lead by the families of these indentured soldiers who the Empire will still not allow to come home.

  We have had enough.

  Shame on the "leadership" that started this insane war for nothing. Bring our kids home now.

  by greendem on Sun Jan 09, 2005 at 07:42:47 PM PDT

  •  no way

    We can't pull out without first having spilled the seed of democracy!

    by Johnny Gentle Famous Crooner on Sun Jan 09, 2005 at 08:23:18 PM PDT

    •  There has been plenty of seed spilling

      in Iraq. They don't want it. The insurgents will grow in number.

      Look at the fight in the U.S. between the red and the blue. We'll soon have insurgents here because of what the repugs are doing. We're doing it with words right now, but as a 52 yr old woman who is chomping at the bit, I can only conclude that there are many others like me ready to go to the streets in revolt.  (I hope I'm not alone...)

      "Time is for careful people, not passionate ones"

      by roseeriter on Mon Jan 10, 2005 at 01:48:28 AM PDT

•  Its good and its aggravating all at once

  Its good, yes, that these bizzaroworld people are starting to say 'yes, this is not going well and we need to explore our options'... now, of course, that Bush has had his ticket punched and suddenly the color coded alert chart has vanished, and the truth can be spoken of without having to fear having to answer for it.

  But what frustrates the hell out of me is that the current leaders of the GOP planned the mess, ran on a record of lies and failure as truth and success that meant they were never held accountable for the mess, and now that the election is over and they have the White House and the Congress... they seem to be slowly shifting gears to a position where next they will be claiming (via Fox) to be 'the reformers' who actually stood up, against themselves of two-three years ago in an 'vaguely unamed villian' cameo, and pulled us out the mess.

  Next thing you know, here in bizzaroworld, the Conservatives will be bitching up a storm because the Nobel Peace Prize hasn't been awarded to Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld. Why? Well, for allowing Iraq to stabilize... by un-invading it. Thus having 'saved' it by leaving it, they naturally deserve an award for peace for pulling out of a place that they had invaded on their own council in the first place.

  It would be like getting a good citizenship award and the key to the city for shooting a robber you sold the gun to and ten somebodies he robbed, and then, after watching them all bleed for a couple of hours, calling an ambulance and saving a few of their lives.

  A hero in Bushworld.

   

  by LeftHandedMan on Sun Jan 09, 2005 at 07:44:29 PM PDT

•  Now if only Kerry says the same

  When he returns from his ME hideaway.Who will be the last to die for a lie.Indeed.

  by ctkeith on Sun Jan 09, 2005 at 07:53:10 PM PDT

•  What strikes me is his narrow

  view of what is happening.  I think it is typical though, of his type.  He says what we have here is Iraqis killing Iraqis and Americans.  He is tired of seeing 5 or 10 soldiers killed.  What about the whole rest of the picture including Americans killing Iraqis?  It seems that some of these people seemingly mostly Republicans, have such a symplistic view.  What about the overall destruction of the country, the huge deficit caused by all of this, and the fact that it was based on false information.........and on and on.  

  What it comes down to in his mind is Americans are getting killed and that is the single thing getting his attention.

  by hopscotch1997 on Sun Jan 09, 2005 at 08:02:48 PM PDT

•  is he getting heat from constituents?

  he tried to shake off the internment issue but was finally, i think, forced to meet with japanese american civil rights leaders. which was interesting, because i doubt there are many j-a's in his district. i wondered why he cared about being depicted as a racist.  

  by yankeedoodler on Sun Jan 09, 2005 at 08:26:27 PM PDT