Exclusive: Pelosi Won't Block Iraq Funding to Stop Troop Surge
Tells ABC News' Diane Sawyer Bush "Has to Answer for This War"
Jan. 18, 2007 — There may be a growing battle between Congress and the president over the Iraq War strategy, but new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she won't block funding for additional troops.
Pelosi's position, revealed in an exclusive interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer, came a day after a group of senators announced a bipartisan resolution condemning the Bush administration's plan to increase U.S. forces in Iraq by more than 20,000 troops. ...
Breaking: Pelosi won’t block surge funds
We all knew this was coming, and none more so than the people on her own side.
From a post on January 9th:
Ace wants the Democrats to do what he knows they can’t and mustn’t, namely, take a clear, committed position on the surge. They don’t want to support it or else they’ll antagonize the nuts, but they don’t want to oppose it either just in case Bush pulls a rabbit out of the hat in the next six months. So they’ll end up taking the Reid/Biden approach — there’s nothing we can do, our hands are tied, and here’s a non-binding resolution expressing our deepest misgivings about the surge plus a check granting you almost everything you’ve asked for just in case you end up winning.
There’s no political downside. If the surge fails, the left can say they showed faith in the troops by funding their mission and giving them a last chance to win. If it succeeds, they get credit for having underwritten victory. Everybody’s happy, just so long as you don’t think too hard about them willingly funding a war which they hate, which they deeply believe is harming America and getting U.S. soldiers killed needlessly, for the sake of their own political expedience.
Here’s Pelosi on “Face the Nation” 11 days ago. Take some aspirin before watching.
[video link]
