In Dems Cave on War Funds, the San Francisco Chronicle reports from AP that Reid failed to overcome an effective Republican filibuster of a war spending bill that contained a deadline for withdrawal, coming seven votes short.
This means the following things:
Afghanistan and Iraq war funding will be rolled into the upcoming omnibus spending bill. IN a rather convoluted turn of events, the spending will be legislated THIS way:
...facing an uphill battle, the House is now expected to vote as early as Tuesday on the catchall spending measure and an estimated $30 billion for Afghanistan and some domestic military requirements. The bill would not initially include money for Iraq, until it makes its way to the Senate and faces the threat of a GOP filibuster. That is when Reid is expected to allow a vote on a Republican amendment to add the Iraq money.
The House is expected to accept the deal.
Merry Reverse JiuJitsu Christmas, everybody.
We all knew this was coming, didn't we?
You know what the only solution to this is?
Elect Democrats. Elect Democrats. Elect MORE Democrats.
I'll amend that to say: more PROGRESSIVE Democrats. More Dianne Feinsteins is not what I have in mind. :)
I feel kinda bad for Harry Reid. He's been getting our slings and arrows for some time now, and I think he really tried to go to the mat on this one. He stalled the Iraq funding for a long time. Unfortunately, with so many other spending and tax priorities coming up, the situation appears to have created a logjam. Of course, Bush could just cooperate and sign bills into law (the way he did every single time when there was a Republican Congress), but where's the fun in that? He is a strikingly stubborn individual, and the only way to really fix this is to see his back in January 2009.
My biggest concern is that the Dems will cave on other things before the holiday recess. I suspect Bush and the WH now feel quite triumphant and empowered to tell Congress what to leave out of the spending bill so that Bush will sign it.
It's up to us to make sure that Americans have long memories about this winter.