Carl Levin: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

There's an old expression that says, "If you don't like the weather here, just wait five minutes," and these days, with a couple of minor edits, it is a perfect description of Senator Carl Levin.  Granted, the man does have his name on the Levin-Reid Amendment that would require the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq within 120 days, with most combat troops out by April, 2008.  While certainly not perfect given that it allows George Bush to waive the requirements, it would be a start.  So we can call that the good.

But two days ago on the floor of the Senate, while talking about the Defense Appropriations bill and Iraq, Levin said:

I have not wished this to be  debated on an appropriation bill because I don't think we ought to try to have a policy debate and decision when it involves the funding of our troops because I think hopefully all of us want to fund our troops.

It's hard to say what is most infuriating about that statement. That he once more dismissed using Congress' only weapon against a President gone wild: the power of the purse. Or that he used the Republican talking point that Democrats want to cut off the troops.  You know, leaving them in Iraq to pawn their weapons for food while they thumb a ride home. And hasn't he ever heard of a funded withdrawal?  This is the bad.

And finally, courtesy of firedoglake, the ugly:

Right after Sen. Lieberman voted against U.S. troops on the Webb amendment, he launched his new Iran Amendment – cosponsored by pals Kyl, Graham, Collins and Sessions with strong support by McCain – and Senator Levin could not fall over himself fast enough to display his love of his big pal from CT. Watch here – but prepare yourself – it will test your gag reflex mightily.

During the so-called debate on this amendment yesterday, Levin asked his "good friend from Connecticut" to emphasize that this was not an authorization to use military force against Iran. Lieberman poo-poo'ed the idea, but later said:

...the US Senate is blowing the whistle on the Iranians and telling them we know what they're doing.  We know it's resulting in the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq and they'd better stop it.  It's as simple as that.  And they can read into that whatever else they want.

But at a time when our military is at the breaking point more than four years into our nation's biggest foreign policy disaster, a disaster that Joe Lieberman still wholeheartedly supports, Levin didn't bother to ask his good friend what that "whatever else" might mean.  And bear in mind, it was just last month that Lieberman said:

I think we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians...

Ugly doesn't even begin to describe it.