WASHINGTON, 18 February 2007 — Allies of US President George W. Bush yesterday again blocked a bid by the Democrat-controlled Senate to open a long-awaited debate on his unpopular Iraq strategy.
In a rare Saturday session, the Democrats failed to win enough support on the floor on a key procedural vote to push ahead with a debate on a nonbinding resolution condemning Bush’s plan to boost US combat troops.
A total of 56 senators, including seven Republicans, voted to allow debate to start, but that fell four votes short of the 60 needed in the 100-seat Senate to pass the vote. Thirty-four voted against.
It was the second time in less than two weeks that loyal Republicans managed to block debate on the unpopular war in the more powerful of the two congressional chambers.
The move came a day after the lower chamber, the House of Representatives, delivered Bush, the country’s commander-in-chief, a stinging rebuke, saying it “disapproves” of his plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had called for the vote to be defeated, accusing the Democrats of “chicanery.” “We will not be forced to vote for a resolution that says we support the troops but does not ask us to seal that pledge with a promise to help them carry out that mission in the only way they can — funding their mission,” the Republican senator told the floor.
But Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, who has recently become an outspoken critic of the war and voted yesterday for the debate to begin, said earlier that it was not important whether the vote was passed or not.
“This is going to go on for some time. And it should be played out, so the American people have an opportunity to know exactly where their members of Congress, the House and Senate, stand on a further escalation of America’s military involvement in Iraq,” Hagel told PBS television late Friday.
“This issue, Iraq, is the most important, pressing issue facing this country. And I think it’s going to become more and more dangerous, unless we do have an honest, open debate on this, so the American people can hear it,” he said.
