Has anyone seen Joe Klein's latest TIME piece? It's absolutely horrible. Klein does what he does best: portray critics of the war as Dirty Fucking Hippies and gloat about how if only everyone were as sensible as him, all of this nasty partisanship could be avoided. Follow me below the fold and we'll destroy Klein's feeble babbling.
This is Klein we're dealing with, so by the second paragraph, he's already lashing out at Democrats:
The screeches you just heard—No! No! Klein, you Bush appeaser!—are coming from the left wing of the Democratic Party, which, despite its incredible erudition, is unable to count to 67, the number of votes needed for a veto-proof majority in the Senate.
Can you count to 51 Joe? Because that's how many votes Bush needs in Congress to get his blank check through. Klein completely fails to understand even basic legislative negotiating. First off, Bush, not the Democrats, need this bill. This is Bush's war, his white whale, and he needs money if he wants to continue it. The Democrats don't need to get a bill signed into law since it's not their war. If Bush keeps vetoing Democratic bills, the funding for the war will dry up and it will end. A stalemate is a Democratic (and American) victory. By the way, those screeches you just heard were those of a DC Beltway wanker who knows less about legislative bargaining than some Dirty Fucking Hippy typing for free.
But this is a President who won re-election by fomenting political confrontations, and he knows the Democrats are in a bind. They won't block funding for the troops. Only 9% of Americans say they are in favor of cutting off funds for the war, according to an April 13 cbs News poll. Unfortunately for the Democrats, that 9% includes the noisier elements of the party's base...Kos assumes Bush will negotiate. He may also assume there won't be severe consequences if Congress refuses to authorize funding and the U.S. thoughtlessly skedaddles from Iraq...Sadly, the left-wing Democrats and Bush are playing the same game—all or nothing—and, even more sadly, the President is destined to win.
I don't know which part of that to refute first. Let's start with some public opinion polls. Here's a CBS poll from April 9-12 from Polling Report:
"Do you think the United States should or should not set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq sometime in 2008?"
Should: 57%, Should Not: 38%, Unsure: 5%
"Which of these comes closest to your opinion? (1) Congress should allow all funding for the war in Iraq without a time limit. OR, (2) Congress should allow funding only for a limited period of time. OR, (3) Congress should block all funding for the war in Iraq no matter what."
No Limit: 28%, Time Limit: 55%, Block All: 12%, Unsure: 5%
Overall, 67% favor the Democrats' plan to get out within a year, while only 28% favor Bush's blank check demand. Klein uses the right wing frame of suggesting that Democrats are cutting off funds even though it is Bush who is threatening to veto their bill. Then he suggests that the Democrats will be pressured by the public to give Bush the same old blank checks sent by the Rubber Stamp 109th Congress because of public pressure. 28% is public pressure? Please.
The public doesn't understand complex legislative negotiating, which ironically works to the Democrats' advantage. Bush cannot veto a Democratic funding bill and then say Democrats haven't funded the troops. It just doesn't make sense (except to Joe Klein). Finally, Klein predicts (like Cheney) that the Dems will cave and send Bush the blank check he has been demanding. At this point, the Democrats have crossed the Rubicon. If they cave in, the public will be furious with them and they will send the message to Bush that they are a rubber stamp Congress just like the last one and he is free to expand executive power with no fear of accountability. The public is overwhelmingly in favor of what the Democrats are doing and will blame Bush if he does not let the troops get funding. From a political and a moral point of view, there is absolutely no reason for the Democrats to back down. But unfortunately, we have some Kleins in our ranks, who would surrender even as we have pushed a the Worst President Ever back into a corner from which he cannot escape unless we let him.
The Democrats need to tell Bush this: We will never send you a blank check. If the public wanted us to, they would have sent back the rubber stamp Congress. If you want to continue this war without end, go out in 2008 and try to elect a Congress and a President who will do that. But as long as we are in office, you will never get a blank check.