PDHblog
This is a place for members of Progressive Democrats of Hawai‘i to express their thoughts
and exasperations about political happenings. The opinions and views are not necessarily
those of PDH's steering committee or membership as a whole.

there is a blog post by senator russ feingold on the huffington post about today’s presidential veto of the iraq spending bill sent to him last week by the democratic congress.  he said he’d veto it before it showed up on his desk, but democrats sent it anyway, using the bill as a signal that congress was no longer bush’s lap dog.

now that bush has done exactly what he said he would, it seems some democrats have already lost their nerve, their will to do battle with the president on this issue.  well, since we couldn’t get it passed with the time line there can’t possibly be a way to force the president to end this war.  oh well, let’s just give him what he wants….

WHAT?

the president is completely unwilling to compromise on anything having to do with iraq, yes, but that doesn’t mean we just throw in the towel.  we keep fighting for what we think, what we know is right.  in a rare instance, democrats in congress actually have tremendous support from the public with regard to ending the war in iraq.  at the same time, the ground seems to be continually eroding from underneath this administration, so WE should be the one to back down?

to use presidential logic, let me put it another way.  for six years, this president has experienced no resistance to his policies.  he’s never heard the word no, but now the democrats are trying to teach him (granted, i’m not sure the man is intelligent enough to tie his shoes, but it’s still worth a try).  now, after their first real stand off, some democrats are ready to give him what he wants?  if we back down now, there’s no reason to think he’ll compromise with congress on anything else.

if you don’t stand up to a bully, he’ll never learn.  however thin the democratic majority is in congress, it is still enough to force this president to work with congress, to listen to the will of the people (some of whom actually voted for him).  there can be no backing down on this issue and i have to applaud senator feingold for coming out and saying it.