John Kerry Will Vote No on Supplemental

I just got an email from John Kerry. He is going to vote "NO" on the Harry Reid Surrender Bill. I guess he wants to get out of town, so voting "NO" is all he seems prepared to do. As predicted, no filibuster. Just give up the fight, vote a polite "no" and enjoy the weekend. Here is the entire email.

Hi Corpus Juris
The compromise supplemental will probably be presented to the Senate later today, but I wanted to drop a quick note to let all of you know my thoughts on it. I'm voting against it. I explain my feelings in a post I put up on the blog Daily Kos.

You can read it here.

Here are the first couple of paragraphs:

Let's be really clear about the Iraq vote coming down the pike in Congress this week.
I'm voting no on this bill. I'm tired of the false choices of Republicans and all the recycled spin of old battles and the political calculations that do nothing for our troops who bear the real costs of this war. Bottom line: we support the troops by getting the policy right, and this bill doesn't do that. I've said it again and again and I'm not about to stop: we need a deadline to force Iraqis to stand up for Iraq and bring our heroes home, not watered down benchmarks and blank check waivers for this President. We support the troops by funding the right mission, not with a White House that opposes a pay raise for our brave men and women in uniform. Do we need to bring out the hand puppets and make the case again?

Thanks for all of your help so far in this fight. I'm disappointed in the compromise bill, but I'm more convinced than ever that we'll win this fight.

John Kerry

Paid for by John Kerry for Senate.

If you live in Massachusetts you might want to write him. Here is an address--John Kerry for Senate, 129 Portland St. Suite 500 Boston, MA 02114-2014, U.S.A.

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When Does the Filibuster Start?

David Sirota asks Anyone Know When the Senate Filibuster Starts? WHERE'S THE BEEF? After all Russ Feingold and Chris Dodd are strongly denouncing the Harry Reid Surrender Bill (Er the War Funding Supplemental.) Surely the two of them could tag team an old Mr. Smith goes to Washington style filibuster to at least slow things down a bit. This morning Jerome Armstrong over at MyDD speculates that both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will vote against the Harry Reid Surrender Bill. That makes 4 Senators to tag team a filibuster. I suspect that eventually all the Democratic Senators running for President will vote no on the Harry Reid Surrender Bill. That should be sufficient number of Senators to at least put up a fight. Jesus, if Senator Kyl could quietly stop the repeal of the Patriot Act provision at the center of the US Attorney firing scandal for months, then surly a bunch of big name senators wanting our votes and money to help them in their runs for President should be able to at least grab some headlines.

Any bets that they do it? With the exception of Russ Feingold, whose position is principled, the rest will moan and groan and vote a very polite and public "no" in hopes of keeping the support of the majority of folks who are fed up with the war, but in the end they won't do anything that might succeed or even call shame on their colleagues. Surrender monkeys are like that.

Oh you might want to follow that Sirota link. He has found and posted the old "Where's the Beef" commercial. A classic.

UPDATE: Keith Olbermann's Special Comment says it all. When does the filibuster start?

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Democrats Surrender--George Bush has his way with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid

Harry Reid has just announced that the Democrats have surrendered. There will be no timelines in the Iraq War Funding bill. There will be benchmarks tied to Iraqi economic aid. CNN is reporting that

Speaker Nancy Pelosi will present a plan to House Democrats for a war funding bill that won't include a time line for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq but will feature benchmarks with consequences, according to Democratic leadership aides.

In exchange for surrender Democratic leaders hope the President will approve an increase in the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour and fund other economic measures which are still being negotiated.

I don't think I am going to be supporting any of the Democrats who vote for this bill anytime soon. What about you? Think its time to form a 3rd party?

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