Friends and fellow citizens, I fear our newly minted Democratic majority, particularly on the Senate side, will in the end lack the courage to impose the sort of fiscal restrictions that would deny the President his much desired escalation. And the reason will be simple, not to mention utterly depressing: Senate Democrats, particularly the moderates who use the slim majority as a cudgel against the party leadership, simply do not have the stomach for the potential Constitutional crisis to which such bold action could so easily lead. In other words, to stand up to the President now would be to commit to fighting the greatest political battle perhaps since the Civil War. Forget the first 100 hours. We would enter a 100 week battle for the survival of every check and balance enshrined in the Constitution
This should be an historic moment in our nation's history when the people's representatives step back from the abyss and reject the creeping monarchical ambitions of an out-of-control executive. Instead, far too many of our Democratic legislators seem poised to squander a clear mandate in favor of self-castration.
Look no further than to what Harry Reid said today...
From the Associated Press:
Senate Democrats were planning to bring to the floor next week a nonbinding measure that would urge the president not to send more troops. The resolution, which Democrats said they hoped would win support from some Republicans, would not force the president's hand on Iraq or try to cut money for troops, they said.
Sen. Harry Reid said he did not believe Democrats would need to do more to twist the president's arm.
"I really believe that if we can come up with a bipartisan approach to this escalation it will do more to change the direction in Iraq than anything else we can do," Reid, D-Nev., told reporters.
If this is what Harry Reid really believes, he is unfit for his leadership position. How can be so blind? An overwhelming majority of the American people oppose escalation. The American people have entrusted the Democratic Party with the purse strings of the federal government and have made it known that the war of choice in Iraq was a mistake. And yet Harry Reid's answer to the President's continuing encroachment upon the rights and privileges of the Legislative Branch is a non-binding resolution watered down to the point that it is finally able to attract support from the President's most sycophantic and unprincipled supporters?
Why do we tolerate such knee-knocking, gelatin-spined quivering from the leader of our party in the United States Senate? How long will we make excuses for and gloss over the shortcomings of our standard bearers?
We will only change direction when someone with the fortitude to commit to and see through to the end a new and meaningful course of action takes hold of the steering wheel and refuses to let go. Now is not the time for meaningless and diluted bipartisanship in service of conflict avoidance. Now is the time for our elected legislators to manifest the opposition of the American people to the war into a true alternative to the President's policies, and then to do whatever it takes to transform that alternative into reality.
Do not simply "urge," Senator Reid. Make it so...or move over.