Courant Editorial Eviscerates Lieberman for Filibuster

by: tparty

Thu Feb 08, 2007 at 10:33:09 AM EST

Nearly all Senate Republicans - and independent Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut - ducked debate Monday on the president's troop-surge plan for Iraq. They can't hide much longer from this critical issue. Nor can they protect the president from Congress' and the public's waning confidence in the war.

...A nonbinding bipartisan resolution crafted mostly by Republican Sen. John W. Warner said it "disagrees" with the president's plan to send another 21,500 U.S. troops into Iraq's civil war. The resolution fell 11 votes short of the 60 needed to begin debate on it. Voting against debate were 45 Republicans and Mr. Lieberman, who said the resolution would "discourage our troops."

Surely Iraq's deteriorating battlegrounds are more discouraging than debate would be. Just as surely, soldiers themselves are debating the wisdom of escalating a war going badly.

In stark and welcome contrast to Connecticut's let's-not-talk-about-it senator stood Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, who argued passionately on the floor that "if we want the president to listen to Congress, then we'd better start acting like the co-equal branch of government that we are and stop acting timidly, fearful of being held responsible for demanding a different course in Iraq."

Remember that Samuel Alito wasn't worth filibustering for Joe (because "it was time to move on"). But apparently the threat of a non-binding debate on Iraq rises to the level that necessitates pulling out every parliamentary trick in the book.

And about his "discouraging the troops" smear... the Secretary of Defense seems to strongly disagree, while giving the troops much more credit for their intelligence and emotional maturity than Lieberman does:

Pace and Gates said they did not think debate in Congress would hurt the morale of troops in combat, undercutting an assertion by many congressional Republicans that members opposing the war were undermining the fighting forces there.

"As long as this Congress continues to do what it has done, which is to provide the resources for the mission, the dialogue will be the dialogue, and the troops will feel supported," Pace said.

Gates added that troops understand members of Congress want to find the best way to win the war. "I think they're sophisticated enough to understand that that's what the debate's really about," he said.

Again, there's a protest outside Lieberman's Hartford office today at 4:30pm.

If he's there, someone should ask him why he has a lower opinion of our troops than the Secretary of Defense does.

Update: Via Americablog, 11 troops have been killed in the two days while Lieberman has prevented debate of Iraq in the Senate. About 300 American troops have been killed since election day.