House Anti-Escalation Resolution Moves Forward

Democrats in the House of Representatives have an advantage over their brothers and sisters in the Senate due to greater procedural ease that allows the House's majority party to ram things through much faster than is possible in the Senate. That, and the fact that Democrats enjoy a more comfortable majority in terms of sheer numbers in the House, makes it much easier to do the right thing there.

You'll see that this week as House Democrats will introduce their anti-escalation, Iraq resolution this afternoon and it will be debated all week starting tomorrow. A vote is expected by Friday.

The resolution is short and sweet, as follows:

110 TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. CON. RES.

Disapproving of the decision of the President announced on January 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Mr. SKELTON (for himself, Mr. LANTOS, and Mr. JONES of North Carolina) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on .....................................................................

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Disapproving of the decision of the President announced on January 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq .

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That—

(1) Congress and the American people will continue to support and protect the members of the United States Armed Forces who are serving or who have served bravely and honorably in Iraq; and

(2) Congress disapproves of the decision of President George W. Bush announced on January 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq.

Period -- end of story.

It's also important to note that the measure is cosponsored by Representative Walter Jones, the North Carolina Republican who was so gung-ho leading up to the Iraq war, that he pushed to have the House cafeteria rename French fries, "Freedom Fries" to slap the French for how smart they ended up being about the whole mess. Jones has since become an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's conduct of the Iraq war and now favors withdrawal of U.S. troops.

The White House can continue to try to hold back this wave of opposition, but it just got a lot bigger as of today.