The Hollywood Liberal

Bush Prods Congress on Iraq

AP
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON – Deadlocked with Congress over Iraq, President Bush begins the week with a message that some good might come from sitting down with his Democratic adversaries. His vice president’s view is more antagonistic: Democrats will ultimately cave.

Dick Cheney says he is “willing to bet” that Democratic lawmakers will back down and approve a war-spending bill that doesn’t call for U.S. troops to leave Iraq. Top Democratic leaders shot back that Cheney has lost all public credibility.

In an interview broadcast Sunday, Cheney predicted Congress will end up passing a “clean” bill that funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without any troop withdrawal timetables. Democrats do not appear to have the votes to override a presidential veto.

“They will not leave the troops in the field without the resources they need,” Cheney said of the Democrats.

Asked what would happen if they don’t back down, Cheney said, “I’m willing to bet the other way — that, in fact, they will.”

“There may be some people who are so irresponsible that they wouldn’t support that,” Cheney said. But the majority will send Bush the bill he wants “once they’ve gone through the exercise and it’s clear the president will veto the provisions that they want in,” he said.

However, the Senate Armed Services Committee’s chairman said Congress won’t relent in winding down the war.

If Bush vetoes a bill calling for troop reductions, Democratic lawmakers would probably come back with a second try that requires the Iraqi government to meet performance benchmarks or face consequences, said Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich. Iraq’s leadership is struggling to make the progress it has promised on political reconciliation, distribution of the country’s oil wealth and other vital goals.

“We are very, very serious about what the American people said in November,” Levin said, referring to the election that put Democrats in charge of Congress. “They want a change of course.”

Cheney’s blistering criticism of Democrats, the latest in a series of recent speeches and interviews, drew harsh words from Levin.

“He has misled the people consistently on Iraq,” Levin said. “He has misstated. He has exaggerated. And I don’t think he has any credibility left with the American people.”

This entry was posted on Monday, April 16th, 2007 at 5:18 am and is filed under H.L. News, Main Blog (All Posts). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.