Pathetic

House passes Iraq funding bill without timelines. Truly pathetic!

Dem Leadership: If We'd Confronted Bush On Iraq, White House Would Have Criticized Us

By Greg Sargent

With the House set to vote on the no-timelines Iraq War funding bill later today, The New York Times provides a glimpse into the thinking among top Dems that led to the current proposal:

...in recounting the leadership’s thinking, senior Democrats and other officials said that by early this week they had concluded there was no alternative but to give ground to President Bush despite their view that he had mishandled the war and needed to be put under tighter Congressional rein.

Democrats said they did not relish the prospect of leaving Washington for a Memorial Day break — the second recess since the financing fight began — and leaving themselves vulnerable to White House attacks that they were again on vacation while the troops were wanting. That criticism seemed more politically threatening to them than the anger Democrats knew they would draw from the left by bowing to Mr. Bush.

Oooooooooooooo, scary! If we didn't give Bush his way, the White House would have criticized us!

Sen. Russ Feingold says: This Is No Time To Back Off

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) responded today to congressional war critics who dropped the Iraq timeline because they feared that “White House attacks” would be “politically threatening“: “Tell that to the families who lose their loved ones in the next few months while we’re dillying and dallying.”

Speaking on MSNBC, Feingold took aim at the “toothless supplemental” currently working its way through Congress. Calling the bill “weak” and “a step backward,” Feingold said, “This is no time to back off. We have ratcheted-up the pressure successfully in the last few months.”

He warned lawmakers seeking to delay action on Bush’s Iraq strategy until September that the White House will use the opportunity to prolong the war even further:

You know what’s going to happen in September? They’ll bring General Petraeus back and he’ll say, Just give me until the end of year. I think things are turning around. And then we’ll be out of session, come back in late January, February, and the fact is a thousand more troops will lose their lives in a situation that doesn’t make any sense and it is hurting our military, hurting our country. This should not wait till September.