Iraqi lawmakers' vacation plans rile Republicans

[babylonsister]

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-vacation10may10,1,3424384,full.story?coll=la-news-a_section&ctrack=1&cset=true

Iraqi lawmakers' vacation plans rile Republicans

Bush's congressional allies say a two-month summertime break would erode GOP support for the war.
By Peter Spiegel and Tina Susman, Times Staff Writers
May 10, 2007

WASHINGTON — The holiday plans of foreign lawmakers are not normally a topic of intense political interest in Washington.

But in a town where the president is known for extended stays at his Texas ranch and Congress shuns longer workweeks, the vacation schedule of lawmakers in Baghdad has suddenly and incongruously moved to the top of the agenda.

At issue is whether the Iraqi parliament will take its regular summer break, a two-month vacation scheduled to begin July 1. If it does, Republican lawmakers have warned that the Iraqis' recess could cost President Bush support from within his own party at a crucial moment in the war.

The U.S.-backed government in Baghdad "would lose a lot of support here," said Sen. Tom Coburn, a conservative Republican from Oklahoma who has opposed Democratic attempts to set a deadline for U.S. troop cutbacks in Iraq. "We're fighting hard. You need to be fighting hard."

Top administration officials have noted the concern. Vice President Dick Cheney raised the issue in meetings with Iraqi officials in Baghdad on Wednesday, and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates discussed it during his most recent trip to Iraq.

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[Ganja Ninja]

1. Schadenfreude anyone? n/t

[Skidmore]

2. It's not fun being put in time out, is it?

[KharmaTrain]

3. They're Gonna Brood All Summer....

...complaining about that evil Nancy Pelosi and her damn 4 day work weeks and shorter vacations. And surely they'll be all up in arms about their own feckless leader taking the month of August off at his Texas pig farm.

What a pile of steaming horseshit. The two month "vacation" is part of the kick the can game here to keep prolonging this war for profit so the very last dollar can be milked from it...and that won't be until Jan., 2009 at the earliest.

[liam_laddie]

4. Golly gee, after six years...

of 2-1/2 day "work" weeks, ya'd think the rethugs would admire their Iraqi brethren for being so successful. Or maybe it has to do with the lack of power for air-conditioning the parliament hall in Baghdad.
Gore Vidal once accurately observed that the installation of air-conditioning in DC offices (starting in the late 1930's, IIRC) was the start of our downfall, as it allowed Congress to spend all year in session. How perceptive.

[blueworld]

5. What exactly will they be doing for two months anyway, fishing?

I guess that's why the GOP wants to wait until September to figure out whether the military surge is a remarkable success.

The political meetings which Petraeus & the Iraq Study Group & every non-neocon on Earth says are vital to Iraq - these meetings won't be taking place all summer?

Oops. I think it was the Iraqi Ambassador on Lehrer last evening who announced that they WILL be attending summer school, I mean Parliament during July, and will probably take a limited August vacation.

I hope the Baghdad fax machines are working so they can send updates to Dubya in Crawford. :sarcasm:

[Toots]

6. I am sure their's will be, like Bush*'s, a "working vacation"

They just need to establish a "western Baghdad" like Bush* has his "Western Whitehouse".....

[bigtree]

7. lip service

until they actually do something to stop Bush they're just posturing