Pelosi, Murtha attempt to micromanage war funding

Remember back in November when Democrats won control of both the House of Representatives… Remember back in November when Democrats won control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate for the first time in almost 12 years? The 100-hour blitz of legislation in the House was going to set the tone and direction for the next two years and maybe even longer. Nancy was hugging babies, smiling and making history. Democrats looked united, and Republicans looked, well, like a fish out of water. It was a good time to be a Democrat. Oh how times change.

Contrary to popular belief, America didn’t have a great awakening of the liberal ideology persuasion that year. If a person took the time to see who these Democrats were who had such good luck winning historically conservative districts and states, he would see that many of the victorious were conservative Democrats. The correct term might be “Blue Dog Democrats.”

The Blue Dogs come from and were voted in by traditionally conservative voters. If any of these Blue Dogs had aspirations to get re-elected, they couldn’t blindly follow the orders of Speaker Pelosi and her protege, Rep. John Murtha. They would have to fulfill their campaign promises. Here starts the problem for Nancy, John and many other antiwar activists.

These Blue Dogs didn’t really make their presence known for the first couple of weeks of the new Congress. They played by Nancy’s rules and helped push through the 100-hour blitz. They were talking, looking and voting like cookie-cutter Democrats. But when the Democrats were done with their election-year politics, real issues had to be addressed. The biggest issue on the agenda is Iraq. As it turns out, many of these Blue Dogs campaigned as pro-troops and more specifically against defunding them.

It’s no secret that Pelosi and co. are against the war in Iraq, and some would argue that they are hoping America loses. Just to show America and the president how much they are against the war, they issued the all-powerful, nonbinding resolution. Take that George W. Bush! But that was just step one. Step two would have to include some sort of real action, something with some meat to it. Enter John Murtha.

John Murtha was in the Marines for many years and served in Vietnam; by Democrat standards, this makes him an expert on all things military. Despite losing an embarrassing bid for majority leader, the 16-term representative still carries a lot of weight in the House. He used his military and political brilliance to draft and tie an amendment to the $100 billion war request from President Bush that would create strict standards of troop safety and readiness.

Because there is not a realistic way to meet the standards, this basically equates to defunding the war and essentially forcing the president to send troops into war without the proper training and equipment. This would have crippled any chance of a troop increase in Iraq and would have achieved the goal of the far left.

The excitement was too much for Murtha, and he let his plan to micromanage the war out of the bag too early. Without the consent of Pelosi, Murtha told his plan to the liberal Web site MoveCongress.org. Murtha’s premature release gave Republicans a running start to try and defeat the amendment.

Because this is an appropriations bill, it cannot be filibustered and must be voted on. As a vote approached, Republicans appeared to be united and Democrats were quickly dividing with Pelosi and Murtha in one corner and the Blue Dogs in another.

These Blue Dogs were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Should they abandon their party leaders or their constituents? “If this is going to be legislation that’s crafted in such a way that holds back resources from our troops, that is a non-starter, an absolute non-starter,” said Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, a leader of the conservative Blue Dog Democrats, according to MSNBC. Chalk one up for the constituents.

“We will certainly expose any Democrat who promised to fund the troops in order to get elected who turns around and supports a slow-bleed strategy now that they’re here and their leadership is calling the shots,” said Jessica Boulanger, communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee in a statement to the Politico.

Now Murtha and fellow Democrats have to find another way to take control of this war before the bill is voted on. Knowing they have the upper hand, Republicans are circulating a petition to force a vote on a binding resolution to forbid the defunding of the troops, a measure that has little hope of passing.

Murtha was so close to being the commander of Iraq War policy in the House it was scary, but luckily he dropped the ball. Democrats have quickly regrouped and are trying their best to micromanage the war. One attempt to defund the troops down, countless more to go. Look out for those Blue Dogs, they bite.

Stand up for what you believe. E-mail Joe at jjm43@pitt.edu.