Webb furious about GOP's anti-troop vote yesterday

With the war in Iraq stretching our military beyond a breaking point, Senators Jim Webb (D-VA) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE) pressed hard to pass legislation that would have given our troops more time in between deployments.  The bill simply stated that the amount of time a soldier spends overseas should be no greater than the time spent on the home front.

Republicans filibustered the bill.  They were joined by Senator Lieberman (I-CT).  Webb and Hagel came up just four votes shy of the 60 votes needed.  Senator Webb's office sent a letter out to a group of selected blogs, including The Blue State, outlining the Senator's frustration:

A Republican filibuster kept this amendment from passing by anup-or-down vote. Americans are tired of this kind of posturing. The troops andtheir families don’t want to hear about political, procedural maneuvers.What they really care about are results. They are looking for concrete actionsthat will protect the well-being of our men and women in uniform.

The question onthis amendment is not whether you support this war or whether you do not. It is not whether you want to wait until July or September to see where oneparticular set of bench marks or summaries might be taking us.  Thequestion is this:  more than four years into ground operations in Iraq,we owe stability, and a reasonable cycle of deployment, to the men and womenwho are carrying our nation’s burden.  That is the question. And that was the purpose of this amendment.

The former Republican majority spent five years complaining about the Democrats' repeated filibustering of President Bush's judicial nominees.  Now in the minority, the GOP just filibustered a bill that improves the lives of our troops.  For some reason, when people like Max Cleland vote against subsidies for defense contractors, they get labeled as unpatriotic.  But when the majority of Republicans destroy a bill intended to help our troops, it is considered pro-victory.

Comments

[Erick]

Nice of them to think of our site among the others they mailed. Good to know we're on the radar.

Good points made here, Todd. Filibustering is supposed to be patriotic when Republicans do it, but cowardly when Democrats do it. It's not that simple. Filibustering is everyone's right, and I'm glad they find the need to use it sometimes, but it gets abused by both sides. In recent memory, though, it seems like Democrats usually have a good reason for it and Republicans do it to be stubborn and blind. Maybe that's because I'm looking at it from a Democrat's point of view, which probably makes me somewhat stubborn and blind too.

It's a wash, I just wish they wouldn't use the war to even the filibuster score.

[john]

i AM A VET AND SOME HOW WE CAN NOT LET THIS FALL BY THE WAIST SIDE, WE HAVE TO KEEP THE DEMOCRATS FEET TO THE FIRE SO THAT THIS WILL NOT GO AWAY

[Project Vote Smart]

Senator Jim Webb’s voting record on military issues can be found at: James Webb’s Voting Record

Senator Jim Webb’s history of speeches on military issues can be found at: http://www.vote-smart.org/speech.php?keyword=iraq&daterange=&begin=&end=&phrase=&contain=&without=&type=search&can_id=60043&go2.x=0&go2.y=0#Results Jim Webb’s Record of Speeches

For more information on Senator Jim Webb, please visit Jim Webb’s Project Vote Smart Page or call our hotline at 1-888-VOTE-SMART.