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Playing on the Senate Floor Is a Dirty Business, Children

Democratic leaders Harry M. Reid and Nancy Pelosi address reporters after the Senate passed the Iraq war funding bill. One Republican said Democrats were
Democratic leaders Harry M. Reid and Nancy Pelosi address reporters after the Senate passed the Iraq war funding bill. One Republican said Democrats were "handing al-Qaeda a victory." (Photos By Chip Somodevilla -- Getty Images)
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"It's coincidental," Jim Manley, the Senate Democrats' spokesman, said with a shrug. "We're not the ones who declared 'Mission Accomplished' four years ago next Tuesday."

That may explain, in part, why Republicans were displaying a high degree of agitation on the Senate floor.

Terrorists "will follow us home," warned Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.). "If we don't stand for freedom against this enemy, we will see it again on our own shores."

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) advised his colleagues that they were sending "a message of surrender, a message of submission, a message of failure."

The lone member of the Democratic caucus to oppose the Iraq withdrawal, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), adopted the Republican language that Democrats were proposing a "deadline for defeat." He warned that "if we follow the plan in this legislation," Americans would lose their "security from terrorism here at home."

But the Vote-Democrat-and-Die theme, which caused Democrats to cower in 2002 and 2004, didn't seem to frighten them this time around. "The president has tried to scare the pants off the public by suggesting that our bill could result in death and destruction in America," Sen. Robert Byrd (W.Va.) answered on the Senate floor. "What utter nonsense. What hogwash."

Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), who won his Senate seat last year on an antiwar theme, suggested an end to the "defeatism and surrender" accusations. "I think we need to calm down a bit," he proposed.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) didn't agree. "Democrats," he announced at a news conference, "want to tuck tail and run."

Neither did Bond think calm was the way to go. The Democrats' legislation, he said, "will tell America that we are no longer concerned about keeping our homeland safe from a new 9/11, about denying al-Qaeda the safe haven it has declared it is seeking in Iraq to prepare for new attacks on America."

Now what was that about the press gallery being dirty?


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