Although I expect that Bush & Co. are working to kill the resolution, I suspect that Cheney - and perhaps Bush too - wouldn't mind TOO much if it passed. It's non-binding, after all, and it gives them another chance to prove just how irrelevant Congress is.

And how powerful Bush-Cheney are. It's a win-win, for them.

It sure didn't take long for Republicans to decide they liked the filibuster again after all.

I really hope the next election cycle produces an even larger Democratic majority in the Senate as well as the House. I really would like to see if the Democrats can fix this mess the Republicans created without letting the Republicans convince the notoriously short-sighted voters in this country that it's all the Democrats' fault, that Democrats want to take everyone's money to give to undeserving poor people and foreigners, and that Democrats will surrender to the terrorists.

Maybe if the Democrats *once again* clean up a Republican mess the voters will finally catch on.

It doesn't matter how many of our stalwart people on the hill are in the boat with George or refusing to get on board....the boat sailed, people. And it's riding the crest of the "surge" already.

When Bushco finally gets around to saying it's going to do something, you can bet they've already done it. So it is with this misguided, misnamed maneuver. Redeployed, stop-lossed and extended (but hardly fresh) troops are already on deck in the Middle East. And as the Boy King pronounced this weekend, he doesn't care what anyone says...he's going ahead. Except he's already gone.

The biggest problem with our Congress isn't that they're wimps, it's that they insist on playing by the rules in the extreme just to protect their pensions, while Bush has never played by the rules. It's a difference in political expediency and the troops and the American people aren't on anyone's "to do" list.

The best this governing body can do is stop pussy-footing around about procedural niceties and vote counts and take this President down with a little old-fashioned passion and force. It's time to get tough with this "my way or the highway" bully. He's gutted the Constitution and the Rule of Law. Why is Congress so worried about being absolutely, positively, excrutiatingly sure they have the right to do something before they do it? Waiting for a sign from above? Sorry...according to Bush, the great Almighty is not your daddy.

For those of us who are sick to death of death...and worry about death, and guilt about non-death, and thankfulness for each day our kids are still alive when it's their right to be alive...DO SOMETHING. TURN THE TITANIC AROUND. NOW!

So, Sen. Reid should do what IS possible at this moment -- get the "sense of the Senate" resolution about the Iraq buildup on the floor, and let the chips fall where they may.

Even if a filibuster can't be shut down, when a majority of the Senate clearly favors the resolution as presented (and you can easily make the case that a majority in favor of cloture equals a majority in favor of the resolution), Reid can declare a moral victory.

My God, how hard would it be for Reid and all other supporters of the resolution to "spin" even a failed cloture vote into this moral victory that shows exactly what the sense of the Senate is? This is so simple!

Just DO it, Sen. Reid -- there is nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Better to be on the right side of THIS issue -- unlike those Representatives and Senators who now struggle to explain their votes in 2002 to approve "use of force" in Iraq.

If Strom Thurmond could vote while seriously dead and Jim Bunning can vote while undeniably senile, why can't Tim Johnson vote while merely recovering from brain surgery?

I don't mean to be flippant about Senator Johnson's illness, but I want to know why Harry Reid is being so flippant about the fate of 160,000 American troops and the future of this nation and the world.

Sixty years ago, a senator who could no longer speak was wheeled into the Senate on his hospital bed and voted for the Voting Rights Act by pointing to his eye (Aye.)

I can't believe Senator Johnson can't do as much.

Although Nita is right - the troops are already there and any vote is moot.

has been handicapping war efforts since day one. He's the right's Lieberman.

as a real vote in a non-binding resolution. The point is, all Harry Reid has to do is announce before the cloture vote something like this:

The honorable Senator from the Great State of Kentucky has chosen to block the vote on our bi-partisan, non-binding resolution opposing the President's misguided escalation of the Iraq War, as is his right under Senate rules. I will tell you honestly that we do not have the sixty votes necessary to end debate and force a vote. That means that this cloture vote is your one chance to go on record about Bush's escalation. If you vote for cloture, that means you oppose Bush's escalation. If you vote against cloture that means you are for it. Since this is a non-binding resolution, we achieve the aim of letting the President, The American People, and the whole world know that this is the sense of the Senate just as well in a cloture vote as we do in a floor vote. Let God and history be our judge. Now do I hear a motion for a vote to end debate?

That would pretty much do it, wouldn't it? Obviously even a nonbinding resolution has more standing than a cloture vote that "fails" by getting, say, 57 votes, but in terms of taking a stand for political and moral reasons, this gets us about 95% of the way there in my opinion. Any other thoughts on this?

-- Joel

Joel, as a Kentuckian suffering under Mitch's wingnut dictatorship, I can assure you he is more than capable of sabotaging your admittedly brilliant ploy. I'm not enough of a parliamentarian to tell you how, but he certainly is.

BTW, Kentucky is not a state - it's a Commonwealth. May seem like a silly distinction to some, but we take it pretty seriously around here.