Lieberman provokes Democrats again: Wants vote on "surge" resolution

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Joe Lieberman is once again annoying Senate Democrats, just two weeks after he angered them with his speech at the Republican National Convention. But with their party's razor-thin majority in the Senate, and because Lieberman caucuses with the Democrats, they are unlikely to do much to punish the senator from Connecticut.

Lieberman's latest provocation is a resolution declaring the recently completed troop surge in Iraq a "strategic success." Lieberman, the Democrat's 2000 vice presidential nominee, is pushing hard for a vote, but it's not a debate the Democrats really want to have.

Most Senate Democrats -- including the presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama -- opposed President Bush's decision in January 2007 to send an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq. Sen. John McCain, the Republican's presidential nominee, backed what Bush called the "surge."

Lieberman, who is backing McCain in large part because of his support for the Iraq War, is happy to highlight the differences between the two candidates....

***

Democrats...say multiple factors in addition to the surge have led to less violence in Iraq -- such as the formation of Sunni Awakening Councils opposed to al Qaeda; Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's call to his militias to obey a cease-fire, and the rising competency of the Iraqi security forces. The Democratic leadership also is loath to bring anything to the Senate floor that could help McCain....

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/17/lieberman.surge/index.html

[lapfog_1]

1. Hey, Joementum, your days of relevancy are numbered.

And that number is getting to be very small.

[lynnertic]

2. How about they just treat him like they do Kucinich: full on IGNORE n/t

[last1standing]

3. Our economy is in literal meltdown and LIEberman wants a feel good vote?

Majority or not, it's time to kick his ass out of the party. He's an embarrassment to every hard working American suffering from his new party's greed. :mad:

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. How about a bill that ends forever these meaningless "Aren't we great?" bills.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

5. Here's something for LIEberman to vote on

Operation: Sierra Tango Foxtrot Underground

[dipsydoodle]

8. What a truly amazing coincidence.

You've used the exactly the same initials as "shut the fact up" which might be wholly more appropriate for him to do.

[gratuitous]

6. Hey Joe! Here's some more resolutions for you to push

Resolved: Water is not wet.

Resolved: It's not dark at night.

Resolved: There is no gravity; the Earth sucks.

Resolved: How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg? Answer: Four. Just because you call a dog's tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.

[nykym]

7. Why don't they

just get a dem who is relatively safe to put a hold on his resolution like that insane repug always does. End of resolution.

[Mist]

16. Yes--table it indefinately for "further study." nt

[demnan]

9. Fuck you, Lieberman

I can't wait for Mark Warner to be in the Senate so he and Jim Webb can take all your committee positions.

[Liberalynn]

10. Joe, Go home until November. You can have your wife praise your own private

"surge," all you want. Then the real Senators can start cleaning up the mess you and your Puke friends have left the United States in. You're supposed to be working in the best interests of the U.S. you clown. You're supposed to be a Senator for Conneticut, not a Senator for Iraq, dumbass.

[bitchkitty]

23. Private surge + Lieberman = Eeewww! n/t

[Liberalynn]

26. My apologies

I hope you had all ready digested your breakfast.:blush:

[billyoc]

11. Shut your McCain hole, Lieberman.

You've burned all your bridges in this life, try the next.

[Javaman]

12. Joe who? LOL nt

[no_hypocrisy]

13. How many more weeks before Congress recesses?

[dmosh42]

14. The agent for Israel speaks! n/t

[Behind the Aegis]

34. Bullshit.

Now, prove your anti-Semitic bullshit. Go ahead. We are waiting. Do check the "Protocols" for help, or "Mein Kampf;" I am sure you will find what you need.

[dmosh42]

39. How much time has Lieberman spent on the frontlines for...

the U.S.? But he's a great chicken-hawk about sending other people's kids to fight against Iran. How come? Try not being an asshole before calling other people anti-semitic.

[Larkspur]

15. Finally, an issue the Dem Leadership don't seem to want to cave on

They better not cave on this, else they can be blamed for handing the election to McCain.

[Solly Mack]

17. still trying to win a "war" based on lies and trumped up evidence

with war crimes and crime against humanity committed throughout

Has the man no shame? Has America no shame?

[whistle]

18. It's time for Senator Reid to dump Lieberman

[sabra]

19. on the day that 9 US Soldiers died in Iraq

:crazy:

[boilinmad]

20. Why cant this...

...boring, idiotic, stupid, irrelevant asshole simply STFU. NOTHING on earth is more repulsive to me than the sound of his voice. The dems should grow some and toss him.

[Kolesar]

21. Obama should give him an ambassadorship or an appointment

To some sub-cabinet level position, with the implied threat that he is going to get no chairmanship in the Senate.

Then the Governor of Connecticut can replace Holy Joe.

[sentelle]

37. can he be made

The ambassador to Stamford?
This way he doesn't have to go far, and has no real power (Stamford CT already has diplomatic relations with the US), and keeps holy joe out of trouble.

While we are at it make McLame ambassador to his own navel.

[Kolesar]

42. How about the Vatican? ... eom

[Crowman1979]

22. Is their anything you DU'ers in CT can do to get rid of this schmuck?

Seriously! Can you have the governor or state legislature bring a recall vote or have him removed?

[Suji to Seoul]

24. Can we kick this bastard out of our party caucus already?

What a jackass!

[quiet.american]

25. I'll tell you what's led to the success of the surge: cold, hard cash.

From Foreign Affairs
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20080501faessay87305-p20/steven-simon/the-price-of-the-surge.html

The Price of the Surge: excerpt:

The assassinations of Sunni leaders warranted retaliation under the prevailing tribal code, opening the door to more systematic cooperation between the tribes and U.S. forces. In the wake of Abdul Sattar's death, a Sunni leader complained that al Qaeda's assassinations had "left resistance groups with two options: either to fight al Qaeda and negotiate with the Americans or fight the Americans and join the Islamic State of Iraq, which divides Iraq. Both options are bitter." After their defeat in the battle of Baghdad -- thanks to the entrenched power of Sadr's Shiite Mahdi Army and the arrival of additional U.S. troops -- the Iraqi Sunnis went decisively with the first option, marking the start of the Sunni Awakening groups. The United States, for its part, had its own incentive to cooperate with the insurgents: June 2007, with 126 troop deaths, was the second-worst month for the U.S. military in Iraq, and General David Petraeus, the U.S. ground commander, was facing pressure to reduce casualties quickly. The most efficient way to do so was to strike deals with the newly pliable insurgents.

The deals were mediated by tribal leaders and consisted of payments of $360 per month per combatant in exchange for allegiance and cooperation. Initially referred to by the United States as "concerned local citizens," the former insurgents are now known as the Sons of Iraq. The total number across Iraq is estimated at over 90,000. Although the insurgents turned allies generally come well armed, at least one unit leader, Abu al-Abd, commander of the Islamic Army in Iraq, who controls Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad, has said that he receives weapons as well as logistical support from U.S. units. His arrangement is probably typical. In November 2007, he agreed to a three-month pact, open to extension.

This strategy has combined with other developments -- especially the fact that so much ethnic cleansing has already occurred and that violence in civil wars tends to ebb and flow, as the contending sides work to consolidate gains and replenish losses -- to bring about the current drop in violence. The Sunni sheiks, meanwhile, are getting rich from the surge. The United States has budgeted $150 million to pay Sunni tribal groups this year, and the sheiks take as much as 20 percent of every payment to a former insurgent -- which means that commanding 200 fighters can be worth well over a hundred thousand dollars a year for a tribal chief. Although Washington hopes that Baghdad will eventually integrate most former insurgents into the Iraqi state security services, there are reasons to worry that the Sunni chiefs will not willingly give up what has become an extremely lucrative arrangement.

[chelsea0011]

27. Hey Joe, have you been watching Wall Street? Dumb resolutions are not on the agenda.

[libodem]

28. What a basket of road apples

If we had gone in there with the amount of troops to contain the big surprise of *gasp* NO WMD?....*gasp* the rise of the insurgency...*gasp* the emergence of a homegrown Al Qaeda....*gasp* a bloody civil war...*gasp* *gasp*----*sputter*----*cough* Heem haw..... We might not have needed a last ditch effort to get up to speed when it was clear we were LOSING. Well, by God we pulled it up by the short hairs in a nick of time and we can declare victory with honor and get the hell out. What a load..... Oh, sure now we need to waste time on a resolution to brag about the last ditch effort...Liberman FU

[Felix Mala]

29. Sure thing, Joe... Only if we can also declare the previous four years in Iraq

an unequivcal disaster for the US and its standing in the world that will take years, maybe decades, for us to overcome.

[NashVegas]

30. History Isn't Something You Can Vote On

[Arugula Latte]

31. Can't we just put him in the stocks, throw stones at him, and be done with it?

[Matariki]

32. When are they going to do real work, instead of voting to pat themselves on the back?

This sort of legislation has to be the very bottom of the 'stupid' barrel.

[DinahMoeHum]

33. Wait until AFTER the elections, folks, when we get our supermajorities

in the House and Senate.

Then, we pressure the Senate leadership to strip Joe of his chairmanships/vice-chairmanships and banish him to shit work of no consequence.

That asshole can go the 'Puke Party, for all I care. No loss to us.

:kick:

[JerseygirlCT]

35. Block it

Don't let the schmuck bring it up. Table it for further consideration - after the election!

[Zorra]

36. Joe is one sorry ass POS traitor. What a joke he has become. n/t

[GoddessOfGuinness]

38. The Splurge has gotten us where we are today economically

If it was intended to secure our financial ruin, I guess it was a strategic success.

[Vinca]

40. It's not a surge for starters. It's an escalation. Surges increase, then decrease.

We now have more troops there than "pre-surge."

[annabanana]

41. He's in a hurry too.. and Rachel Maddow's listeners know why.

The "advances" that the "surge made possible" are unravelling as we speak. The Sunni warlords we've been paying not to fight us, and who we promised would be incorporated into the Iraqi Army & Police forces, are now being ARRESTED by the Iraqi and Police forces for "crimes committed" before the fabled "Anwar Awakening"...

a real shitstorm, with a reactivated Madhi Army of pissed off Sunnis is acomin' down the path...

I am SO glad that Rachel spells this all out in such a clear manner during her radio programs. Everybody else absolutely REFUSES to connect the dots.

[Jennicut]

43. It does not sound good. I am ashamed that Joe Loserman is my senator