Democracy in action!

The House of Representatives recently passed a resolution "expressing disapproval" (but not doing anything about) President Bush's plan to send 20,000ish more soldiers into the disaster that is Iraq. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid gave up on the various attempts the Senate has made to pass a similar resolution, and simply adopted the exact language passed in the House one. It seemed like a savvy move, but unfortunately, the Republicans have successfully filibustered it.

So, what we saw in the Senate today was our Democratic Senate fail to even get enough votes to override a filibuster to allow another whole vote on a resolution that, if passed, would not really have any actual effect on the President's plan to escalate the war in Iraq. A war which has, and this can't be said enough, already cost hundreds of billions of dollars, and probably (low-estimate) half a million lives, thousands of those American.

To their credit I guess we can say that they did at least try to hold a vote to officially not really do anything to stop a truly insane move that only 13%! of Americans actually support. Kudos to them.

The upside? The guilt for the many deaths likely to result from this tragic failure of our government can rest squarely on the shoulders of:

1) John Sununu, from New Hampshire, most endangered Republican up for re-election in 2008.
2) Sam Brownback, Chuck Hagel and every other senator/presidential candidate who voted against cloture.
3) Last but not least, everyone's favorite presidential candidate, supporter of the surge even before it was cool, John McCain. He gets special brownie points for being too busy campaigning to even show up and vote for his pet policy!