House Passes Troop Withdrawal Bill 218 to 208

by Jonathan Singer, Wed Apr 25, 2007 at 05:54:44 PM EDT

The official vote talley is available here (in short, Dems split 216 to 13 and GOP splits 195 to 2 in opposition with all remaining Reps. either voting present or not voting) and you can read the Associated Press report below:

A sharply divided House brushed aside a veto threat Wednesday and passed legislation that would order President Bush to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq by Oct. 1.
[...]
Republicans promised to stand squarely behind the president in rejecting what they called a "surrender date" handed to the enemy.
"Al-Qaida will view this as the day the House of Representatives threw in the towel," said Rep. Jerry Lewis of California, ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee.

As an aside, I think it's extremely telling about House Republicans that their point man on this bill, Jerry Lewis, remains under a federal corruption investigation over his all-too-close relationship with lobbyists as chairman and now ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee.

Tags: Iraq, withdrawal (all tags)

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typo in headline

look at it again

by John DE 2007-04-25 05:55PM | 0 recs

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Re: typo in headline

Thanks.

by Jonathan Singer 2007-04-25 05:56PM | 0 recs

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Re: House Passes Troop Withdrawal Bill 218 to 208

I think it'd be useful to point out that of those 13 Democrats, some of them (e.g. Maxine Waters and Lynn Woolsey) were more about protesting any funding at all.

by PsiFighter37 2007-04-25 06:01PM | 0 recs

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Anybody know

who has and hasn't pledged to vote for the override?

ie. do we gain or lose votes in the face of a veto?

by kid oakland 2007-04-25 06:37PM | 0 recs

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Re: Anybody know

The important question as far as I'm concerned is how many Republican votes can be peeled off for a veto override, and how they are to be peeled off.

The fact this vote is happening is a great thing, but unless it's a step toward a veto override (a veto override either now, or in a few months after the inevitable temporary funding bill)-- I'm not sure how this is going to be particularly useful.

by mcc 2007-04-25 09:22PM | 0 recs

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Re: House Passes Troop Withdrawal Bill 218 to 208

I know they feel very strongly about ending the war now, but I think if you look at realisitically, voting against this bill is not helping the cause. That being said, I'm proud of our men and women in Congress today. You know just today when I was looking at the 08 Senate forecast, I thought to myself "boy, sometimes I still cant believe we CONTROL CONGRESS." And days like today are why it really matters.

by AC4508 2007-04-25 06:15PM | 0 recs

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Re: House Passes Troop Withdrawal Bill 218 to 208

I don't think there's any real connection to be drawn through Jerry Lewis. Rather, Republicans are bad on two counts: firstly they're corrupt, secondly they're wrong. You're conflating a pair of separate (and hopefully equally damaging) flaws in their political thought and conduct.

by Englishlefty 2007-04-25 06:29PM | 0 recs

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total dipshit alert

Why aren't the so called "Dems" who voted with Jerry Lewis called out on the front page?

by Bob Brigham 2007-04-25 06:38PM | 0 recs

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Re: total dipshit alert

I think because in some cases (all but Holy Joe maybe?) the Dems voting against it were against ANY FUNDING AT ALL. Since they knew their "no" vote wouldn't cause the thing to not pass at all, they voted against it.

A veto override vote would probably cause most of them to fall in line.

by Dave in PA 2007-04-25 07:34PM | 0 recs

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Re: House Passes Troop Withdrawal Bill 218 to 208

And its too late, I just said Holy Joe, when it was a house vote lol. Time for bed!

by Dave in PA 2007-04-25 07:35PM | 0 recs

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Re: House Passes Troop Withdrawal Bill 218 to 208

There is absolutely nothing wrong with blaming everything on Joe Lieberman. Come to think of it, I'm fairly certain this whole war was his idea.

by LandStander 2007-04-25 07:49PM | 0 recs

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Re: House Passes Troop Withdrawal Bill 218 to 208

Legislatures can't be miracle workers but seemingly futile exercises still bear great merit.

The people of this country are faced with highly visible and distinct choices when Congress passes legislation like this. True, it's frustrating that change requires patience when the topic is ending a war. But that adds further reinforcement to the concept that a rush to war is always foolhardy unless a clear and present danger to our nation exists.

It took but three decades to unlearn that lesson gained in Vietnam. One hopes when this one concludes, we can look to thirty years more of relative peace. Because the cemetery industrial complex can't often be restrained that long.

by KevinHayden 2007-04-25 09:49PM | 0 recs