Decision ‘08

So What’s The Release Date For The Next Democratic Plan In Iraq?

And when does it get out of beta testing?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, her party deeply divided and holding only a narrow majority, faces long odds in passing legislation that would bring troops home from Iraq before the 2008 presidential election.

Pelosi, D-Calif., has pitched a plan that would fund the war in Iraq but demand that troops leave by Sept. 1, 2008.

The proposal immediately triggered a veto threat from the White House and rebukes from Republican leaders who predicted the GOP would unify in opposition.

More troublesome for Pelosi was dissent within her ranks, with several conservative Democrats saying it may go too far and liberals saying it did not go far enough. Her counterparts in the Senate also did not step forward to support the proposal, offering instead legislation that identifies March 2008 as a goal, not a demand, for withdrawal.

And of course, there’s the real question of how much time the House will have to even consider Iraq, as they have a very full plate politicizing the Libby verdict:

Valerie Plame, the CIA operative exposed after her husband criticized President Bush’s march to war, will testify next week before lawmakers probing how the White House dealt with her identity, the chairman of the panel said Thursday.

Also invited to testify March 16 before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is Patrick Fitzgerald, who this week won conviction of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby of obstruction and perjury in the case, said Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Plame has accepted the invitation, Waxman said, but Fitzgerald has not responded.

In a letter to the prosecutor, Waxman proposed a meeting with ranking Republican Tom Davis of Virginia to discuss the terms of any testimony.

“The trial proceedings raise questions about whether senior White House officials, including the vice president and Senior Adviser to the President Karl Rove, complied with the requirements governing the handling of classified information,” Waxman wrote in his invitation to Fitzgerald.

“They also raise questions about whether the White House took appropriate remedial action following the leak and whether the existing requirements are sufficient to protect against future leaks,” Waxman added. “Your perspective on these matters is important.”

Waxman went on to say that the verdict raised the very real possibility that he can act like a partisan hack and get a lot of air time out of a trial and investigation that has already concluded…and boy, he’s right!…

14 Responses to “So What’s The Release Date For The Next Democratic Plan In Iraq?”

1 Fargus Says:
March 9th, 2007 at 8:41 am
Hardly unprecedented, given the late Clinton years, for the House to hold hearings on issues surrounding the President.
2 mikebdot Says:
March 9th, 2007 at 8:42 am
Two posts ago you said that nobody has a clue if she was covert or not. From this post it is 100% apparent you don’t really care one way or the other. It seems that you feel she and Wilson got the fate that they deserved. Fundamentally, this is where the left and right differ.
3 Mark Says:
March 9th, 2007 at 8:51 am
Hardly unprecedented, but partisan hackery nonetheless - Mike, you must be reading my blog in an alternate universe where I said something in this thread about Valerie Plame not being covert - but if you think Waxman’s hearings going to clear up that mystery, pass around what you’re smoking!…
4 Fargus Says:
March 9th, 2007 at 8:55 am
I’m not trying to do some kind of comparative analysis, or justify anything that Democrats do by saying that the Republicans did it before. That would be stupid.

But on the face of it, to dismiss any scrutiny of the executive branch as partisan hackery is a little disingenuous.
5 peter Says:
March 9th, 2007 at 10:47 am
Firing eight U.S. attorneys to replace them with political cronies is politicizing the workings of government.

Congress fulfilling its oversight responsibility is the government doing its job.

While Fitzgerald’s “trial and investigation … has already concluded,” that does not mean the end of the story. His work was necessarily limited because of his role as a prosecutor. His ability to speak freely is severely restricted for the same reason. Congress has a much broader responsibility to investigate what really happened and find the answers to the questions which are not yet publicly known.

Moreover, the nation deserves to hear from Valerie Plame, and this is the right setting for it. We’ve heard enough from right wing bloggers who routinely denounce the “lies” of Plame and Wilson, as though Plame has said something. As far as I know, she has never given an interview, written an article, or talked to a reporter. I think we should hear what she has to say.
6 Mark Says:
March 9th, 2007 at 10:54 am
Ha! Peter, thanks for the laugh…this would be the same Valerie Plame who posed for Vanity Fair, hit the Hollywood cocktail party circuit, and signed a multi-million dollar book deal?

Yes, let’s hear from her, she’s really an enigma…
7 peter Says:
March 9th, 2007 at 11:22 am
Her book hasn’t come out, as it’s in the CIA hands — she may have posed for Vanity Fair (who wouldn’t?) but as far as I know hasn’t talked to them — she’s a free citizen, why shouldn’t she go to whatever parties she wants to go to?

If you’ve heard so much from Valerie Plame: what does her voice sound like?
8 peter Says:
March 9th, 2007 at 11:44 am
For that matter: can you think of anyone else as famous as Valerie Plame whom you have never heard speak a word?

(Except Marcel Marceau, of course)
9 mikebdot Says:
March 9th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
“NO!” - Silent Movie
10 Mark Says:
March 9th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Sorry to burst your bubble, Peter, but Valerie is doing an exclusive interview with…Keith Olbermann. No, really - in eight days…

Whoo-eey, life is too sweet!…
11 Mark Says:
March 9th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
And tickets are $150 - she’s such a martyr!…
12 Fargus Says:
March 9th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
I don’t think that bursts any bubble, Mark, as it’s yet in the future.
13 Mark Says:
March 9th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Plame also spoke at the National Press Club when she announced her civil suit.
14 Mark Says:
March 9th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
As in, in the past…