Wednesday, September 26, 2007

More "Sense of the Senate" resolutions

Today, the Senate overwhelmingly approved by a vote of 75-23 a non-binding resolution calling for the "soft partition" of Iraq into three separate regions should Iraqis agree with the move. This amendment to the 2008 defense authorization bill was proposed by Sen. Joseph Biden who came up with the idea with Council on Foreign Relations President Emeritus Leslie Gelb. Every Democrat save for Sen. Russ Feingold voted in favor while Republicans were more split (like our two Senators with Kay Bailey Hutchison in support and John Cornyn opposed). Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain didn't vote. I'm sort of ambivalent about such partition plans since we can't force it on Iraq (though it is what will likely happen to the country) and the Bush administration won't change its support for the Malaki government anyway. Anyway, you can read more about the plan here:

Unfortunately, another resolution that passed with a big margin was one offered by Sens. Joe Lieberman and John Kyl on Iran designating the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group and pegs it for troubles in Iraq, which Sen. Jim Webb courageously compared to the resolutions passed by the Senate that lead to the Iraq war. All the Republicans voted in favor save for Sens. Chuck Hagel and Richard Lugar. Democrats were split. As far as the presidential candidates go, Sen. Hillary Clinton voted in favor while Sen. Biden and Chris Dodd voted against. Again, Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain didn't vote.

UPDATE: Sigh. The House voted to condemn that MoveOn.org ad too. Meanwhile, a war in Iraq rages on...

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