Apparantly being associated with the Republican Party is now like having a red X on your forehead. Well finally, that's the way it should be.

By the time we are through all the new proposals, it will be Jan-09. Sounds like a plan.

Why don't we invite all the warring factions to come to Death Valley. We CAN fight them here. That way, our Day Shift troops can go home at the end of the day and let the Night Shift take over. At midnight, the Graveyard Shift (Whoa) can kick it in. It would save us a bundle in transportation costs.

Some of the rats are no longer swimming towards a sinking ship.

another rat jumps ship good its about tim.

Well "Hello"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone wants to get their name in the headlines so in 08 they can say "I tried to do something!" That's pretty pathetic. They should spend more time putting their heads together to find a workable solution that majorities in both houses can support and less time pretending that they are actually doing something worthwhile.

"There ain't no cure for the summertime blues"-"Summertime Blues"-Eddie Cochran

I'm just glad to hear some Republicans finally break with the administration on some levels. This was the purpose of the 2006 elections and to change the tone of this war. It's frustrating but the Republicans really do own the keys to this war, and to finally hear something different..there may be hope yet. It is time to disengage the troops and let the Iraqis do the heavy fighting.

You got to give our poor Congress credit they are all wanting to get on the bandwagon but it seems the Republicans and Democrats all want to maintain and go ahead with the surge in troop levels but we'll call it something else ""We need to get out of the combat business in Iraq and into the support and training and equipping business as soon as we honorably can," They undoubtly think the American people are the dumbest people on the planet but I guess they have good cause when they started this mess the mob couldn't get on their horses fast enough to follow their lead.

All of the recommendations in the Iraq Study Group Report? Even the ones that contradict each other? Better not leave one out because that will be the ONE the dems use to say "They aren't following the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group"

I really agree with the statement bc peaceful growth needs to get under way. War is not the answer for terrorism; it is one of the reasons that terror exists. If conservatives really want to fight terror then they should look into different alleys where funding would actually make a great impact. This war has cost over $340 billion to date. According to the Borgen Project, it costs just $19 billion annually to end starvation and malnutrition or just $23 billion annually to reverse the spread of Malaria and AIDS. Wouldn’t aiding in the development of countries and ending poverty thru the Millennium Development Goals be a better plan for attacking extremism?

The House voted down the bill that would have pulled the troops out in 6 months. Looks like Bush didn't need to do anything with the veto pen.

Greg: It's more like having a dunce cap on your head and "Property of Halliburton" jtatooed on your fanny ! They're kinda easy to pick out. This is the difference that Democratic majorities have made in congress. Previously, Congress consisted of three monkeys: See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak only evil

"Round Midnight"-Thelonius Monk

Right on Carrie!! Congressional members are playing 08 political games rather than actually working on a solution. A lot of the recommendations in the Iraq Study Group report seem like good ideas (and talking about it again is at least encouraging), but I am not optomistic that the Bush Administration is capable of competently carrying out any of the recommendations even if they decided to do so (I am still rooting for them to do so, because their failure is really bad for a lot of people). The quote above: "We need to get out of the combat business in Iraq and into the support and training and equipping business as soon as we honorably can," seems like a no-brainer to me. Is there anybody that actually disagrees with that? The question I wish our elected leaders were working on is: "how do we actually do that?" I wish the Dems at least would come together and put forth a unified plan, and then continually question the Bush surge strategy in relation to their plan. Biden's got a plan, but his plan does not support the "pull em now" talking point they've been lathering up their base with recently, unless you can, of course, partition a country in couple months. And, the Republicans in Congress are just hopelessly confused on Iraq, as they have been for six years (sorry, its just objectively true). This is all very, very bad methinks.

This story will repeat itself over and over for the next year or so. One at a time, Republicans will continue breaking away, either out of political opportunism or conscience. I don't see any recovery for this administration - the news is already more interested in what the candidates have to say than in what the current office holder says. And yes, every second termer goes through a lame duck period, but I've never seen an administration as lame as this.

Why didn´t we have this type of spirited discussion in the Congress when Bush decided to invade Afghanistan and Iraq? What a bunch of phoneys.

Why didn´t we have this type of spirited discussion in the Congress when Bush decided to invade Afghanistan and Iraq? What a bunch of phoneys.

Five comments: (I'm retired military (26 years Army & Navy)) 1st-I'm inclined to give General Petraeus and Admiral Fallon until August/September of 2007 to give us an honest assessment of how long it will take to clean up this "mess" in Iraq. I don't believe that it too much to ask of this country which continues to play politics (but that's another issue for another time) with the war in Iraq (which in my mind is Bush's war). 2nd-If and when the United States does pull out of Iraq, do the Dems have a plan to get our folks out and bring home the equipment as well? I believe that if we leave before the job is complete, we will not have any credibility any where in the world, but I'm just an average US citizen, what do I know? By the same token, I personally believe that fixing all of the problems in Iraq may not be able to be achieved by the US in this or any other century. It's an entirely different culture when people carry grudges that date back several centuries and demand redress often by rifles or bombs before they are satisfied. I don't believe that the middle east is a region that knows democracy as well as it knows strong one man or one party rule. It is the system that most of the inhabitants are used to and know best. Whether they like it or not is another story entirely. Perhaps in having elections in Iraq, the US has created false expectations in the Iraqi electorate, because (as I read earlier today elsewhere) that the Iraqi social structure is organized by family, then by tribe, then by religious sect and then (perhaps if there is time and a desire), one's province, and then perhaps the country where one lives. It is a society where religion and politics dominate and permeate the social structure. Resembling the United States in it's earliest founding days, but not so now, where the powers at be, seem to go to great lengths to divorce the two .... 3rd-Why haven't we captured Osama Bin Laden? We have the best trained military and seem to go hither and yon whenever we feel like it. Our military is the finest (I know, I was a member) .... so, again, why haven't we picked up Bin Laden? Is it better to keep him and his second in command as sort of "boogeymen" to occasionally taunt us from time to time? 4th-I don't believe that the United States has the political will to declare and sustain a war longer than about 3 years or longer. Why? Look around, it's been almost 5 1/2 years since 9/11 and what happened on that fateful day and yet, it's all a faded memory to most Americans. There is a price to be paid for failure of due diligence and for being on guard. The government has thrown billions of $$$ at the problem, but in my mind, we haven't solved the problem, so much as we have made some corporations wealthier and many people poorer. 5th-I have lost interest in politics, Presidential, national, state etc. Why? They all look the same, they all act the same, they all talk the same. All of the candidates that I see who are announced are doing their usual thing .... offend no one, raise lots of cash, wink at the laws (or ignore them), the same scandals, different players ("I don't recall that" It depends on what your definition of "is" is .... It appears that we are going to have all of our primaries early on, so that we can either have an early coronation of our next king/queen/president or someone will arise from the "ashes" to lay claim to the office. Personally ... I'm ready for a third party. I really don't see much difference between the Dems and Repubs at the national level, although they do always claim that the other side has the upper hand ... Have a great day! Oh yea, before I forget .... Chuck Todd, why don't you smile in your picture? Is life that tough for you?

Republicans still need to stand up to override President Bush's for-sure vetoes for all these new bills. What's keeping them from doing so? It makes no sense to me how they continue to wear blinders.

"After Midnight"--Eric Clapton

LAMAR!

Bush is and will eventually go down in flames- and it will be his own doing.

Steve, ever since the "debate" I've been looking more and more at Ron Paul. I consider myself an independent who wants a competent CIC who upholds the constitution, believes in limited government and wants to secure our borders.

Greg R, I go for tatooing a big red W on their foreheads and put them into a permanent national registry as is done for sex offenders and warn communities when they move in. The public needs to be protected.

The statement "as soon as we honorably can" is eerily reminiscent of the 1970's, in a war with many similarities. All bad.

Gee, and then, in a flash of intuitive illumination, the Pres and the Iraqi government decide, about nov/dec '07, to listen to the Repub criticisms, and pull our troops out by may/june '08, just in time for the conventions, so that The Repub nominee is off the hook on Iraq, and Hiliary can do her famous morph/chameleon trick, and smoke her rivals at the summer Dem convention. Its always so much fun to watch Hiliary make fools out of her rival candidates, and the clueless left-wing lunatic Dem fringe: mirrors, anyone?

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