Senate Caves to Bush on Iraq Funding

[Frontpaged by Hunter]

Twenty Democrats in the Senate joined Holy Joe and the Republicans to hand George Bush another blank check for Iraq, without commitments for troop withdrawals, according to The Hill.

John McCain was the only Senator-presidential candidate who voted in the affair; he voted to approve.

The Senate on Tuesday night handed President Bush a critical victory in the Iraq debate, approving billions of dollars for war operations and backing down from a months-long threat of withholding funding until the White House commits to a drawdown of troops.

After falling short on two attempts to force a change in war tactics, 20 Democrats joined one independent and a united Republican caucus to approve $70 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which will be packaged with a sprawling $516 billion omnibus spending bill that would fund most federal agencies.

Interestingly, both Carl Levin and Jim Webb voted to approve.

Look, I know our hold on the Senate is tenuous, at best, especially when you consider Joe Lieberman, but come on. This paragraph frames it all for me:

The 70-25 vote caps a year of unsuccessful Democratic attempts to sufficiently chip away at solid GOP support for the war. Ultimately, Democratic leaders declined to levy pressure on their caucus to block the latest round of unfettered Iraq money.

As Toby Ziegler said in "The West Wing": This administration doesn't even need an opposition party, we do fine ourselves.

UPDATE: Here are the votes...Dems voting "Yea":

Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Levin (D-MI)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Tester (D-MT)
Webb (D-VA)