The hubbub in the Democratic blogosphere and elsewhere (I've already received fundraising emails citing the letter!) ignores one little fact: the Democratic side was just as organized as the Republicans.
I'm going to discuss the Republican rhetoric; I'm sure that some con blogger has done the same sort of look at the Democratic points.
Speaking as someone who watched far more than a few speakers (C-SPAN junkie that I am :) ), it was obvious from the first few speakers what the baseline of Republican rhetoric was going to be - "don't question the President, it endangers Americans."
Everything else was intended to just embellish that basic premise, and embellish they did, from the very beginning of the debate, with no regard for the facts.
House minority leader John Boehner (R-OH), the initial Republican speaker, set the tone with this jaw-dropper from the first day of the debate:
"We didn't start this war. They did. Now we have got a duty to finish it, and, for the sake of our kids and theirs, to win it." (p. H1494 of the Congressional Record)
Of all the wars, declared and undeclared, that the United States has ever been part of, NONE has been more the responsibility of one single man than the war in Iraq.
George Bush wanted the war, and with the complicity of his lapdogs in the then-Republican-controlled Congress, he got it.
Iraq never attacked us or was a threat to do so; Iraq was never a part of Al-Qaeda; Iraq was not involved with the attacks on September 11, 2001.
Boehner went on, telegraphing the Republican line for the next few days. He brought up terrorists, September 11, 1979's Iranian Hostage Crisis, Democrats want to "give up and leave", "embolden our enemies," etc.
Subsequent Republican speakers added in lots of "Islam! Danger! Muslims! Bad!" and variations thereof. AZ's own Trent Franks was particularly bombastic in this area - p. H1657, H1658, and H1659) but he was far from the only one who did this.
Another favorite tactic of the Republicans was to compare Bush to great presidents like Lincoln (Civil War), FDR (WWII), and Washington (Revolutionary War). and to equate questioning his conduct of the Iraq war with questioning the others with the way they conducted the wars of their respective presidencies.
Of course, the Republicans left out the minor detail that those presidents didn't actually start those wars; they just finished them.
After a while, most of the fun in watching the proceedings was in seeing who would go off script.
Jeff Flake of AZ CD6 went a little off script in that he voiced his opposition to the resolution in a calm, reasoned manner. He was one of the few Republicans to do so. He was wrong, but he didn't embarrass himself, his constituents, or the country.
Less calm and reasonable, and a nominee for the award "Looniest Leap of Logic" goes to Lee Terry (R-NE2) for the following (emphasis added):
"But I read their authored resolution. And the words are that you support and protect members of the Armed Services who are serving, are serving or have served, which means that they will not support our troops, any uniformed member that is newly sent to Iraq..." (p. H1626)
Good freakin' God.
Anyway, my favorite moment of the debate, and perhaps one of the least scripted, occurred late Thursday evening (more Friday morning than Thursday evening) when Republicans Steve Buyer (IN4) and Louis Gohmert (TX1) got into a barking match with Democrats Kendrick Meek (FL17), Tim Ryan (OH17), Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (FL20) and Chris Murphy (CT5) over (among other things) the Republican implications that the House Democrats were "unpatriotic" for questioning the President. The chair at the time had to step in a couple of times to calm things down. (p. H1774 through H1778)
It was a good indication of what the debate would have been like if the House members were allowed to say what they really thought.
Note: while the the Republicans may no longer be the majority of members in Congress, what they lack in numbers they make up for in smarmy arrogance.
The written Record is kind of dry; if I can find a link to video of that part of the debate, I'll post it.
Anyway, the Shadegg letter is here, courtesy the AZDems.
The final tally on H Con Res 63:
Passed 264 to 182, with 17 Republicans crossing over to support it, and 2 Democrats voting against.
Good night!
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