In Case You Missed It .... Forum Editorial: Democrats’ hypocrisy is showing

The Forum
Published Wednesday, February 07, 2007

The Democratic spin machine in the U.S. Senate is working overtime. When Republicans blocked debate this week over the Iraq war, Democrats cried foul. But the procedural vote was, in effect, an attempt by the Republican minority to force the majority to expand the debate, not shut it down.

The distinction is important because when Democrats were in the majority they rightly accused Republicans of shutting Democrats out of many important debates. Democrats charged – and they were right – that important legislation was written behind closed Republican doors without any opportunity for Democrats to participate. Now that the majority shoes are on other feet, Democratic hypocrisy is showing.

Senate Republicans merely want the Iraq war debate to include more than the nonbinding resolution that expresses disagreement with the president’s plan to deploy more troops to the war zone. They want equal treatment for an alternative resolution that says Congress should neither cut nor eliminate funding for troops in the field.

Yet, Democrats, who whined routinely when the previous Republican majority effectively blocked any critical discussion of the president’s war policy, now seem to be conducting themselves in the same manner.

Democrats have been rightly clamoring for a wide-ranging, comprehensive debate over the Iraq war. Now that they are in the majority and have the opportunity to engage in such a vigorous debate, they are playing procedural games in order to block views that don’t conform to their virulent anti-President Bush agenda. Their conduct is petty and hypocritical.

Forum editorials represent the opinion of Forum management and the newspaper’s Editorial Board.