He does like Senator John Warner though.
You gotta love this guy. This video is of Hagel speaking from the Senate floor yesterday, making good on the promise of John Warner's letter to introduce amendments and fight until the Warner\Levin\Hagel\Biden resolution is debated in the Senate. Hagel takes on Senators who have called the resolution "ambiguous", "irresolute", "inconsistent", "meaningless", "irrelevant" "unprecedented", and claiming that "one cannot support the troops while criticizing the mission", by showing these self-same Senators supported similar binding and no-binding resolutions when Bill Clinton was president.
The full text of Chuck Hagel's statement linked here. Hat tip to the Texas Toad at North Texas Liberal for pointing me in the right direction on Hutchison quotes.
As time permits I will update this post with links to specific resolutions highlighted by Chuck Hagel in the speech.
UPDATE: February 14, 2007
As promised, this recent Kay Hutchison (R-TX) quote is highlighted in the video: "The worst thing we can do as a Congress is to undercut the president internationally. Passing a resolution that is not binding — the president is the commander in chief — I think sends exactly the wrong message.” - Jan '07.
In the above quote Senator Hutchison is, of course, referencing President Bush. In December of 1995, she apparently felt differently about undercutting President Clinton internationally. This is the non-binding resolution she sponsored on the floor of the Senate (full text):
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 35--RELATIVE TO BOSNIA
(Senate - December 13, 1995) [Page: S18565]
Mrs. HUTCHISON (for herself, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Craig, Mr. Nickles, Mr. Kyl, Mr. Lott, Mr. Bennett, Mr. Brown, Mr. Burns, Mr. Campbell, Mr. Coats, Mr. D'Amato, Mr. Domenici, Mr. Faircloth, Mr. Frist, Mr. Grams, Mr. Hatch, Mr. Helms, Mr. Kempthorne, Mr. Murkowski, Mr. Pressler, Mr. Santorum, Mr. Shelby, Mr. Simpson, Mr. Smith, Mr. Stevens, Mr. Thomas, Mr. Thompson, and Mr. Thurmond) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was considered and not agreed to:
S. Con. Res. 35
Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring),
SECTION 1. EXPRESSING OPPOSITION TO THE DEPLOYMENT DECISION.
The Congress opposes President Clinton's decision to deploy United States military ground forces into the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina to implement the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its associated annexes.
SEC. 2 EXPRESSING SUPPORT FOR UNITED STATES MILITARY PERSONNEL WHO ARE DEPLOYED.
The Congress strongly supports the United States military personnel who may be ordered by the President to implement the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its associated annexes.
SEC. 3. TRANSMITTAL OF RESOLUTION.
The Secretary of the Senate shall transmit a copy of this concurrent resolution to the President.
The resolution failed 47-52 in favor of Senate Resolution 44 a few days later (more on 44 here).
Finally, some breaking Valentines Day news. As round 6 of the President/Congress Constitutional wrestling match plays out in the House of Representatives, Senator Harry Reid has jettisoned the Warner/Levin amendment to take up the House version upon the Senates return from the the President's Day break.
2 comments:
Except Hagel voted to filibuster the Warner resolution. Hm.
True. My take on that vote... Warner, Hagel, and the "gang of seven" sincerely wanted to get to a 60 vote plurality on a resolution in the hope of making a true bipartisan statement. Even if they all voted for cloture, they did not have enough Republicans. So they backed off when asked, rolled the dice and played ball with the leadership to get a few more votes. Essentially they were saying - "we'll stay in line for this vote, on the expectation that you are going to work it out." They put it on the leader's plate to get it done. The leadership let them down, they are pissed, and now there is nothing to tether them anymore. Either they got played, or their leadership is impotent. In either case they are going to be running an "open loop" from this point on this issue and are no longer manageable by the leadership of either party. That is part of what triggered this speech from Hagel. Should be fun to watch this continue to play out.
Post a Comment