The Motion to Adjourn for Recess Passes 47-33. Shame on the Senate.
Senate Majority Leader Reid thought that pushing through a cloture motion to debate the House-passed resolution against the President’s Iraq troop surge plans would balance out a principled call by Senators Hagel and Snowe to oppose any Senate recess until a debate on the troop surge takes place.
Reid’s effort to get cloture just failed — and now Dems are voting in mass against Hagel and Snowe and in favor of Presidents’ Day shopping excursions.
Hagel, Snowe and others have been writing a “pox on both your houses” letters several times over now — and there are numerous Democratic Senators who are getting as irritated with their own leadership as with the Republican leadership of Mitch McConnell and Trent Lott.
Adjournment is a serious mistake for Dems while this matter is unresolved — and the Hagel/Snowe letter is something Reid and others should embrace, forcing the recalcitrant Republicans to stay and give up their fundraisers and family excursions.
It was not enough to have a simple cloture vote today — Reid should have gone further and become a stakeholder in what Hagel is doing — and that is assuring that the Iraq troop surge resolution be our single highest priority right now.
— Steve Clemons
Update:: Matt Stoller of MyDD.com agrees.
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