My Townhall.com column deals with the pledge, but there is even greater urgency to the task of bringing informed pressure to bear on GOP senators gone wobbly on the war. If you are a blogger, please consider posting the contact information below and urging your readers to join in the effort to wake up the GOP Senate caucus. Send along Dean's post below as a primer on how senators are supposed to act when difficult political decisions loom affecting the life of their country and the conduct of a war.
From the Washington Post:
The committee's partisan vote strengthened the hand of Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) and a bipartisan group of senators backing a less forceful resolution of opposition.
Warner and his co-sponsors, Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), went to the Senate floor last night to introduce their resolution of opposition, brandishing a raft of new co-sponsors, including Democrats Ken Salazar (Colo.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.) and Bill Nelson (Fla.), as well as Republicans Gordon Smith (Ore.) and Norm Coleman (Minn.)….
But several Republicans indicated they would vote for a resolution of opposition if the language were toned down. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), a presidential candidate, said he was in talks with Warner on a resolution he could embrace. Others were still awaiting some sign of compromise from the president.
The Warner resolution encourages the enemy, and that is according to the testimony of General David Petraeus. Not only should it have zero co-sponsors, there should be zero GOP support for any of its first cousin resolutions. In my interview with him yesterday, Norm Coleman indicated that he will reconsider support for the resolution, and every Republican named in this story needs to hear from you as well. E-mailers tell me that Senators Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and George Voinovich of Ohio are also among those who were considering the Warner resolution prior to the Petraeus testimony.
Please spend the day working the phones and the e-mail to let these senators and the GOP leadership know that the Warner resolution is unacceptable. Sign the pledge and ask your friends and family to do so as well (more than 6,000 have done so in 18 hours.). The country is not defeatist, does support victory in Iraq, and most certainly does not support encouraging the enemy. From yesterday's interview with Tony Snow:
HH: But Tony Snow, did you understand General Petraeus yesterday to say as I think he said, the Biden resolution, or the Warner resolution would provide encouragement to the enemy?
TS: I mean, I believe his answer to that characterization was, and I quote, “That’s correct, sir.”
Snow went on to add that "it’s very important that the base make itself known." Senator Kyl told me that "I think my colleagues have their ears to the ground," but they are clearly not hearing from the core of the party, a core that will not shrug off a vote for the Warner resolution or any resolution that undermines the policy already in place adn supported by not just the president but also by General Petraeus.
Please tell the candidates in the ’08 cycle especially –Alexander, Collins, Coleman and Smith and would be presidential nominee Brownback—that a vote for the Warner resolution is the end of support for them and the NRSC.
Senator Alexander’s phone: (202) 224-4944. His e-mail is here.
Senator Brownback’s phone: (202) 224-6521. His e-mail is here.
Senator Coleman’s phone: (202) 224-5641.His e-mail is here.
Senator Collins’ phone: (202) 224-2523. Her e-mail is here.
Senator Smith’s phone: (202) 224-3753. His e-mail is here.
Senator Voinovich's phone: (202) 224-3353. His e-mail is here.
The GOP leadership, which need to announce that no resolution will voted on that encourages the enemy, and that includes the Warner resolution or any cousin of the Warner resolution:
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s phone is (202) 224-2541. His e-mail is here.
Minority Whip Trent Lott’s phone is (202) 224-6253. His e-mail is here.
Senator Jon Kyl’s phone is (202) 224-4521. His e-mail is here.
Senator John Ensign’s phone is (202) 224-6244. His e-mail is here.
When you are done calling and writing, start over, and ask your friends to do so as well, beginning with the pledge.
I don't know what these senators are thinking this morning, but they clearly haven't been listening to you. No debate will begin or vote be taken until next week, so invest some time in supporting the troops by bringing clarity to these senators: You can't win a war by encouraging the enemy and undercutting the commander on the ground in Iraq or the Commander-in-Chief in the White House. Not to understand that is a great way to send an unreversable message to core supporters that their time and money is best spent elsewhere.
Becaue Senator Brownback is seeking the presidency, and because he is the only candidate with views sympathetic to Senator Warner's round-heeled and unnecessary resoltuion, I encourage you to contact him through his campaign to express your views as well. Semator Brownback is a very good man and an excellent senator, and could conceivably attract significant support in the Republican primaries if Mitt Romney falters.
But not if he cannot be trusted to listen to the generals on how to fight the war, to support the president, and to fight fiercely for victory in the Senate.
Senator Brownback's campaign website e-mai is: info@brownback.com.
I won't be listing the campaign websites for the GOP senators leaning toward supporting Warner's resolution. It will discourage me to begin the '07-08 campaign cycle aware that I won't be able to support with time or money some very fine senators or, in all likelihood, the NRSC. But victory in war trumps party. The senators may say they are voting their conscience. So will I.
UPDATE: John Hawkins at RightWingNews doesn't like the pledge, because, as he explained on my radio show last night, he doesn't think the NRSC will change its pattern of behavior of supporting all GOP senators, no matter how much support it costs them. My response is that we will never know unless we try to make it change, and in any event, victory in the war trumps party. I think Senaytor Ensign will be very open to a candid discussion with Senators Alexander, Coleman, Collins, and Smith, but not if there is no pressure from the actvists and past NRSC supporters to lay out the facts to them. The NRSC can try and thrive on PAC and lobbyist contributions, but look what supporting Lincoln Chafee got them last time --and he was just one senator gone sideways.
The NationalReview.com gang is holding a conservative summit in D.C., beginning tomorrow. I hope that is the occasion for a lot of conversation about the Warner resolution, the pledge, and the necessity of victory. Thus far no one at The Corner has opined on the pledge, but as the blogroll at the site grows and grows, it seems to me obvious that the vast majority of center-right opinion does indeed find the Warner resolution disgusting and a deal-breaker when it comes to support for those senators who vote for it.
I invite a supporter of the Warner resolution to initiate a pro-Warner resolution web site to demonstrate to us how the senators in favor of the resolution have been consulting with their constituents, party activists, and, crucially, men and women in the military and their families.