Democrats close Senate to discuss Iraq
From the Times: "Democrats invoked a rarely used rule today that sent the Senate into a two-hour closed session, infuriating Republicans but producing an agreement for a bipartisan look at whether the Republican leadership was dragging its feet on a promised inquiry into the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence on Iraq." The GOP was not amused.
I'm happy that the Democrats are refusing to play the White House's spin game and move on from Plamegate to Alito, and I think that Reid deserves a good deal of praise. It's an attention-grabber, to be sure, which may be partly why the Democrats did it, but of course it does bring Iraq and the WMD debacle back to the fore after Bush and the Republicans tried to turn the page with the Alito nomination and some presidential speeches and photo-ops (and fear-mongering: avian flu, anyone?).
There's a ton of reaction in the blogosphere, but make sure to check out Steve Clemons at The Washington Note: "I think it was bold and a very constructive move by Reid." Reid "has done the nation a great service by making sure that our public attention is still focused on the mismanagement and serious abuses of the national security circumstances of the United States." Indeed, Steve thinks it's "very important".
Okay, I'm willing to give him that. But it's a big deal because of the issue, Iraq, not because of how the Democrats closed the Senate (which is what too much of the focus in the MSM is on).
At TPM Cafe, Mark Schmitt thinks that this is "a moment when the effective majority switches, when the minority takes control of the agenda well before an election".
See also Political Animal, The Carpetbagger Report, The Left Coaster, Tapped, Pandagon, Iddybud, and, of course, The Moderate Voice.
(On the right, see Professor Bainbridge.)
I'm happy that the Democrats are refusing to play the White House's spin game and move on from Plamegate to Alito, and I think that Reid deserves a good deal of praise. It's an attention-grabber, to be sure, which may be partly why the Democrats did it, but of course it does bring Iraq and the WMD debacle back to the fore after Bush and the Republicans tried to turn the page with the Alito nomination and some presidential speeches and photo-ops (and fear-mongering: avian flu, anyone?).
There's a ton of reaction in the blogosphere, but make sure to check out Steve Clemons at The Washington Note: "I think it was bold and a very constructive move by Reid." Reid "has done the nation a great service by making sure that our public attention is still focused on the mismanagement and serious abuses of the national security circumstances of the United States." Indeed, Steve thinks it's "very important".
Okay, I'm willing to give him that. But it's a big deal because of the issue, Iraq, not because of how the Democrats closed the Senate (which is what too much of the focus in the MSM is on).
At TPM Cafe, Mark Schmitt thinks that this is "a moment when the effective majority switches, when the minority takes control of the agenda well before an election".
See also Political Animal, The Carpetbagger Report, The Left Coaster, Tapped, Pandagon, Iddybud, and, of course, The Moderate Voice.
(On the right, see Professor Bainbridge.)
posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at
12:59 AM
2 Comments:
It seems to me that all this focus on drama misees the point. We were promised an investigation on administration involvement in intelligence failures, this promise was broken.
By
Anonymous, at 1:51 PM
Totally agree. I'm sure there was some political posturing going on, but the fact is the Administration has continually stonewalled any kind of investigation into the intelligence. And I suspect the reason is is that what we would find is that the intelligence was ambiguous at best and that the Administration ignored it in their rush to war. Good for Reid.
And, of the poor Republicans; they just control the House and Senate. And they have always been so solicitous of the Democrats.
By
Anonymous, at 3:10 PM
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