'A Triumph for Pelosi'

The Democrats send their message on Iraq.
Opinion Journal, March 24, 2007 - That's how the Associated Press described yesterday's [Friday, March 23rd] vote by the House to demand a U.S. retreat from Iraq, and in the perverse calculus of Capitol Hill we suppose it was. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has demonstrated she can pile on enough pork to bribe enough Democrats to cobble together a bare, partisan majority to "send a message" that has no chance of becoming law. Congratulations. Continued...

The $214 billion House spending bill passed by a vote of 218 to 212. In a Las Vegas Sun interview Rep. Kean Heller (R-NV) said, "This is General Pelosi's cut-and-run bill." ... I think the people who should be calling the shots are those commanders in the field. Given that and a choice between Gen. Pelosi, I chose Gen. (David) Patraeus every time."

"Even in their (Democrats) own caucus, they had to put so much pork in it on spinach and peanuts and milk subsidies - you name it - just to get enough votes for the 218, You couldn't tell whether this thing was a farm bill or a supplemental spending bill," Heller added that he did support a Republican alternative that provided specifically only for funding troops "with no pork in it, none of the shenanigans, none of the games."

Related Bill: H.R. 1591: U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health, and Iraq Accountability Act, 2007