WASHINGTON D.C., July 22, 2007
Reid: GOP Protecting Bush Not Troops
Senate Majority Leader Says He Tried To Move Forward, Wants Troops To Come Home
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Play CBS Video Video Reid: Get Out Of Iraq On Face the Nation, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said that Senate Republicans won't vote on Iraq withdrawal legislation to protect president Bush.
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Video Snowe: Bipartisanship Needed On Face The Nation, Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, talks about the Senate's overnight debate on Iraq and calls for a bipartisan effort to end the war.
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) sits at his desk in his office while the Senate debated about redeploying troops from Iraq. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
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Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
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Photo Essay Iraq In Pictures A daily diary with scenes of the latest attacks and snapshots from the effort to rebuild a nation.
"Even Iraqis, by a 70 percent margin, think that Americans in Iraq are doing more harm than good," he said. "So getting the Americans out of Iraq ... I think, would lessen chaos rather than increase it."
The legislation stalled Wednesday after a 52-47 vote fell eight votes short of the 60 that Democrats needed to advance it. Reid kept the Senate all night Tuesday to try to force some movement on the issue.
Critics have charged the Democratic leader with failing to compromise after he ended debate early Wednesday morning, but Reid said he only wanted to force an up-or-down vote.
"I offered on many occasions – not one, two, three, four occasions – many occasions said, 'Let's vote on all the Iraq amendments, all of them, and have a simple majority for them.' The Republicans wouldn't let us," Reid said. "They would not let us vote on the Iraq amendment because they are more interested, minus Olympia Snowe and a few others, they're more interested in protecting the president than they are protecting the troops."
Reid said Democrats do not want to withdraw troops precipitously, but rather set a timetable where forces would be redeployed by May 1, 2008. The U.S. military would then focus on counterterrorism, protecting American assets in the Middle East and training Iraqi troops, Reid said.
Senator Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, who sits on the Select Committee on Intelligence, was one of four Republicans who broke with her party and voted Wednesday with the Democrats. She said Congress and the president need to reach a compromise and start to bring troops home in anticipation of an assessment to be given by Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq.
"The president needs to understand that September 15 is going to be a serious deadline for change in our mission," she said on Face The Nation. "If you look where we are today, I mean, it's been eight months since the election, where the American people repudiated the stay-the-course in Iraq, rejected the open-ended, unconditional commitment by the president in Iraq."
Snowe said that Congress, which has a 14 percent approval rating, isn't reflecting the views of the American people.
"Here we are 8 months later, who would've believed that we would be now committing additional troops of more than 30,000 and the Iraqi government has yet to achieve one political benchmark to reconcile their country," she said. "And more outrageously that they plan to take the month of August off while our men and women dying in the field. So we're making the military sacrifice, our brave men and women yet they are unable to make a political sacrifice to achieve what only they can achieve in the end and that is to reconcile their country and to take charge of their own destiny."
But at the same time, Snowe said Reid should be more willing to compromise, even though Republicans blocked a straight-majority vote.
"Right now is the pivotal time with respect to our policy in Iraq," she said. "We should be sending an unconditional message that this is the final window of opportunity for the Iraqi government to initiate the political benchmarks that they view to be essential to national reconciliation."
© MMVII, CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Michelle Obama tells how her role as the First Lady has changed her perspective.





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See all 290 Comments...Karen Tumulty, Time magazine's national political correspondent, said that with the Post article "the phrase [contempt of Congress] takes on new meaning ... There's no way to challenge the President's assertion of executive privilege, because, well, the President has asserted executive privilege."
...Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Pat Leahy, D-Vt., called the decision "deeply disturbing" and said that "this President and Vice President seek to override the independence of law enforcement and manipulate our valued system of checks and balances. This is another demonstration of the lawless and unchecked path the President, the Vice President and their loyal aides have taken us down."
Posted by doctorwho4 at 10:01 AM : Jul 23, 2007
I hereby nominate the above post as the single most incredibly ignorant post on here...ever. I don't know what he's smoking, but I want his dealers name.....
Posted by festes81 at 12:59 PM : Jul 23, 2007
I think you just described Bush's wet dream.
Somehow this doesn't sound like authorizing a war to me. I could be reading it wrong. Can someone explain to me where Lars gets his info that Congress authorized n Iranian war?
reid can sell off the sand dunes for oil and we'll all sit around and hold hands and sing kumbiya. BLLEEEECh
I appreciate your comments. But remember, the only reason we are in Iraq is so the greedy ones can control the oil. That is why we went there and it is why they will try to stay there, all at expense of our federal tax-dollars and most importantly, our children.
By stressing the fact that the %u201Cwar%u201D cannot be won militarily, yet not approaching a political solution, reeks volumes about the facts already known by most %u2013the invasion of Iraq included intended permanency of remaining in Iraq forever.
Is it not possible that a few Republican members have the fortitude to ignore the overly stressed President%u2019s ideology and revert to breaking with UNITY and vote according to their own preference instead of leeching out with weakness toward WHAT THE PRESIDENT WANTS -
Posted by j-whitman at 03:47 PM : Jul 23, 2007
it will cost every non muslim skippy...
especially if fascist nazi terrorislam wins...
, You aren't on the recieving end of it, our Troops are, & right now they are waking up after a few hours rest wondering how they are going to make it through the day & just what thier mission is.
Posted by j-whitman at 03:23 PM : Jul 23, 2007
the mission is...
VICTORY AT ALL COSTS!!!
I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.' We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Winston Churchill Speech in the House of Commons, after taking office as Prime Minister (13 May 1940)
every poor sob that is non muslim and living in some fascist nazi terrorislamic state is as well as the ones that are living close to the borders of any fascist nazi terrorislamic state... and now the all the western powers are as well...
Posted by infidel_us
Speaking of which, do you know why they aren't building down there in that thar ward? It's because the builders think the levees are gonna go again and don't really think it's a good idea to bulld below sea level. Gee, and I thought it was because of FEMA. What was I thinking. But that doesn't buy newspapers now does it -- it's because that's below sea level too.
, You aren't on the recieving end of it, our Troops are, & right now they are waking up after a few hours rest wondering how they are going to make it through the day & just what thier mission is.
Posted by donnie900 at 03:16 PM : Jul 23, 2007
Especially if you're a senator from Louisiana! :)
they authorized the use of force... that's war...
when you are on the recieving end of it... it is called it war...
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