The Senate Debates the So-called Surge

On the heels of the house passing its non-binding resolution against Bush's escalation, senators are in DC for a rare Saturday session (which you can watch/listen to live on CSPAN at the time of this writing) to consider the matter as well. It's already doomed to fail since it won't garner the 60 votes needed but the back and forth is lively (and quite over the top at times) regardless.

And...this just in...at least one protester showed up in the senate to shout something about 'the American people voted...'. He was promptly punted by security.

A Washington Post editorial on Saturday bashes John Murtha while declaring:

The House vote does matter: It ought to increase the pressure on Mr. Bush and the Iraqi government to follow through on their pledges to accompany the military campaign with tangible steps toward political accords and economic reconstruction.

Nice idea. Too bad it's not true. Bush simply doesn't care what the congress thinks. He's already stated continually that he'll go ahead with his escalation - no matter what.

What WaPo's editors don't like is this:

REP. JOHN MURTHA (D-Pa.) has a message for anyone who spent the week following the House of Representatives' marathon debate on Iraq: You've been distracted by a sideshow. "We have to be careful that people don't think this is the vote," the 74-year-old congressman said of the House's 246-182 decision in favor of a resolution disapproving of President Bush's troop surge. "The real vote will come on the legislation we're putting together." That would be Mr. Murtha's plan to "stop the surge" and "force a redeployment" of U.S. forces from Iraq while ducking the responsibility that should come with such a radical step.

What was "radical" was Bush's illegal invasion, but the MSM certainly wasn't using that word about Bush at the time.

The congress has a duty to deal with this catastrophe on behalf of the American people and the Iraqis but the vast majority of the Republicans are still too scared to even talk about it while they still feel some bizarre need to prop up their leader even though he has failed them at every turn. And the worst part of it is that they continue to falsely declare that those who do want this debate aren't "supporting the troops". You don't support them by sending more in to die for an illegal war that the neocons conceived in the comfort of their leather armchairs in DC while sipping expensive cognac - dreaming about the power they would get by expanding the American empire without even considering the Pandora's box they would open as a result.

You're either loyal to them or you're loyal to the people you represent. That's the choice here.

Update: The vote to debate the resolution in the senate failed.