Mike Gravel has something to say to Senate Majority Harry Reid regarding this past week’s legislative sleep-over on the Iraq War. Here’s his open letter:
Dear Harry,
I am glad to see that you have finally used the powers of the Senate to try to stop the war, but frankly I agree with the Republicans: this week’s Senate sleepover was more theater than substance.
First off, the Reed-Levin bill will not stop the war; it calls for a limited pullout that would leave the rest of our troops even more vulnerable. If we are going to fight to end the war, let’s fight for a bill like I proposed which would immediately begin a complete troop withdrawal and make it a felony for George Bush to continue the war. Clinton, Biden, Obama and Dodd say they want to end the war, but so far none have submitted a bill that would really do it.
Second, your decision to accept the result of a single cloture vote lets the Republicans off the hook. One overnight debate didn’t give the American public enough time to digest what was going on. They didn’t even have time to contact their Senators and tell them to break with George Bush or face their wrath in 2008.
If you really want to shape war policy, you must call up a cloture vote every day at noon until you get cloture. Of course you wouldn’t have the votes at first, but that’s why you need to force the Senate to remain in session seven days a week to vote every day on cloture throughout the summer. The same tactic would apply for both the House and Senate to override a veto.
In the meantime the press will report on the daily votes alongside the mounting death toll. The American people will then have time to see which Senators and Congressmen still refuse to take responsibility for ending the carnage. If you keep up the pressure every single day, I guarantee your opponents will wither on the vine , and you will get an up-down vote within 20 days and override a veto in 40 days. You have already flipped 4 of the 23 Republicans up for reelection next year. The rest will flip when their constituents weigh in and threaten their political survival.
By not calling for repeated cloture and override votes throughout the summer, you let the heat off the Senate Republicans and you undermined your own cause by scheduling symbolic votes on water bills and then staging an all-nighter when you didn’t have the votes to win. It makes it all look like a publicity stunt––exactly what your critics claim.
Harry, it’s time to get serious about forcing a constitutional confrontation with Bush even if it means canceling the Congress’ summer recess. Can you do anything less after a number of Senators have publicly ridiculed the Iraqi parliament for not canceling their summer recess? Why should vacations matter when American and Iraqi blood is being needlessly spilled? We Democrats need real leadership right now––not political showboating. Your colleagues in the Congress are not going to like the tough leadership I am suggesting. But believe me if you’re successful, and you will be successful, your leadership will make Senate history.
Clearly you are not getting proper counsel and support from your fellow Senators and my presidential candidate colleagues. They all talk a good game about ending the war, but they haven’t shown any legislative leadership on the matter. As a former Senator with experience stopping an earlier futile war, I will be happy to meet with you and my candidate colleagues to explain how the Senate can begin the process of ending this war once and for all.
Feel free to call me.
Sincerely,
Mike
What do you have to say to Gravel’s letter?
I think that Gravel, and Kucinich, are being purists and dunderheads. It drives me crazy, their idea that unless the occupation of Iraq is ended all at once it can’t be ended at all.
I say that a partial pullout leading to a full pullout could be voted for in the Senate six months before a vote for a full pullout. The preparation and pullout takes time anyway, right?
Their all or nothing approach, and the concurrence of others like them, is keeping the occupation going longer than it needs to.
Sorry PW I must disagree. The dems in the house and senate have had every opportunity to end this war since they took control of both houses. To do a “partial pullout” they would, as they admit need “more votes” then they have presently.
The only way to end this war, using the power the dems already have, is to defund it. The dems need NO VOTES, to NOT SPEND MONEY. All they need do is refuse to let ANY BILL that contains funding for this war out of committee. Most bills never make it to the floor because they die in committee. They kill bills every day in this way. This would be the way to stop the war!
The sad truth is the dems intend to continue this war. Else they would have stopped it in the last supplemental they passed in the senate by a vote of 80 yay to 14 nay. Said bill was brought to the floor of the house in a “procedural vote” that got 635 yays. If the dems in the house had voted against it, it would not have been brought to the floor. There was no way the repubs could have brought the supplemental to the floor without the dems!
When the fy2008 budget is signed into law giving the bush crime family all the money it wants to continue this war, then you will understand that the dems and repubs in elected office are in cahoots.
My answer to all this is that the two party system is a failure. We need to vote for ANYONE not a dem or repub come the 2008 election.
The scientifically impossible I do right away
The spiritually miraculous takes a bit longer
I’d agree with you on the voting option, Clap, if the calamity of the Bush take-over hadn’t followed the run by Nader (who i voted for, being the best alternative with the best answers). The voting process is now completely damaged and corruption abounds. From rigged electronic elections to biased human intervention (Harris in Fla.) to smear campaigns being foisted on the electorate rather than substance to voter apathy, the whole system is flawed. What we have now is the corporate shell game combined with the religious right movement trying to effect policy (and it’s working, unfortunately).
I was going to say something along the lines of, “Nice idea. Any chance of it’s being implemented?”
This war is of no value to the united States, or any of their citizens. There are a select few who are benefitting, but if they want to continue a war in that region, they can pay for it out of their own pockets – Most of the people we are fighting are privately funded, and look how well they are doing!
ClapSo’s has it right, in my uninformed opinion, that if the Democrats really wanted to end the war, the have many options available to persuade the Republicans to go along, not only by defunding the war itself, but by defunding anything and everything the Republicans ask for until the Republicans pull their heads out and recognize that alliance with GWB is a bad idea for them.
But I’m pretty cynical of Democrats ever doing the rights thing. They’ve been pretty ineffectual at protecting the people from the actions of the neo-cons in this administration, so I don’t really expect them to be able to stand up for what’s right when it comes to the war.