# Senate to vote this week on Feingold-Reid Bill (troops must leave Iraq by 3/31/08) **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 14, 2007, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senate-to-vote-this-week-on-feingold-reid-bill-troops-must-leave-iraq-by-3-31-08/404108 "2007-05-14T22:52:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senate-to-vote-this-week-on-feingold-reid-bill-troops-must-leave-iraq-by-3-31-08/404108/1 "2007-05-14T22:52:45Z")
Story [here.](http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/05/14/ap3719194.html) The bill would cut off all war funding after that date. There will also be a vote on a softer measure that, while providing $120 billion in funding, would require troops to start leaving by 10/1/07, but allow the president to waive that requirement. Both “would be offered as amendments to a water projects funding bill being debated this week.” (I know, I know . . . If I had my way the Constitution would include a “single-subject rule” for bills, like some state constitutions have. But senators have to work with the system they’ve got.) Apparently [the Feingold-Reid Bill](http://bobgeiger.blogspot.com/2007/04/text-of-feingold-reid-bill.html) is a completely different animal than the funding-with-deadline bills the House has produced. But how does that make its prospects for passing, or surviving a Bush veto, any better? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senate-to-vote-this-week-on-feingold-reid-bill-troops-must-leave-iraq-by-3-31-08/404108/2 "2007-05-14T22:53:48Z")
:smack: Mods, please move this thread to GD. Pretty please. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senate-to-vote-this-week-on-feingold-reid-bill-troops-must-leave-iraq-by-3-31-08/404108/3 "2007-05-14T23:02:57Z")
**Moderator’s Note:** Moving from Cafe Society to Great Debates. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senate-to-vote-this-week-on-feingold-reid-bill-troops-must-leave-iraq-by-3-31-08/404108/4 "2007-05-14T23:17:59Z")
More meaningless nonsense. Look at what the bill doesn’t cover: > [@](#): > > (d) Exception for Limited Purposes - The prohibition under subsection (c) shall not apply to the obligation or expenditure of funds for the limited purposes as follows: > > (1) To conduct targeted operations, limited in duration and scope, against members of al Qaeda and other international terrorist organizations. > > (2) To provide security for United States infrastructure and personnel. > > (3) To train and equip Iraqi security services. I also think the allegiances of the various factions over there are so fluid and ill-defined that almost anything could be said to be linked to al-Qaeda or “international terrorist organizations”. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2007, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senate-to-vote-this-week-on-feingold-reid-bill-troops-must-leave-iraq-by-3-31-08/404108/5 "2007-05-16T01:16:10Z")
Interesting [analysis](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051500190.html) of what this vote means for the presidential candidacies of Clinton, Obama and . . . oh, yeah, Dodd. How will they vote, I wonder? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2007, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senate-to-vote-this-week-on-feingold-reid-bill-troops-must-leave-iraq-by-3-31-08/404108/6 "2007-05-16T20:08:07Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Interesting [analysis](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051500190.html) of what this vote means for the presidential candidacies of Clinton, Obama and . . . oh, yeah, Dodd. How will they vote, I wonder? [/QUOTE] No need to wonder anymore. [Senate rejects Iraq withdrawal](http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070516/pl_nm/iraq_usa_funding_dc_4) [All 3 voted in favor.](http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00167) Although I guess technically it wasn’t a vote in favor, since it was just a vote for cloture. It’s possible that one or more (esp. Hillary) would not have voted in favor of the bill once it was up for a real vote. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2007, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senate-to-vote-this-week-on-feingold-reid-bill-troops-must-leave-iraq-by-3-31-08/404108/7 "2007-05-16T20:31:27Z")
Tony Snow’s take: > [@](#): > > …“I think that sends a pretty powerful message…which is, the idea of withdrawing on a timetable is not something that the American people, or for that matter Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, support.”… Aside to **John** : we were discussing spin, in another context? This is spin, this is the genuine article, accept no substitutes, 100% pure-D _spin_! Calibrate detectors accordingly. From Talking Points Memo Cafe: [http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/may/16/tony\_snow\_defeat\_of\_feingold\_amendment\_shows\_americans\_oppose\_withdrawal](http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/may/16/tony_snow_defeat_of_feingold_amendment_shows_americans_oppose_withdrawal) No link or transcript offered, but video from U Tube. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2007, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senate-to-vote-this-week-on-feingold-reid-bill-troops-must-leave-iraq-by-3-31-08/404108/8 "2007-05-16T20:51:14Z")
[QUOTE=elucidator] Tony Snow’s take: Aside to **John** : we were discussing spin, in another context? This is spin, this is the genuine article, accept no substitutes, 100% pure-D _spin_! [/quote] Yeah, it’s spin. > [@](#): > > Calibrate detectors accordingly. My spin detectors are just fine. But I think the McCain bit on TP was just as full of spin as this is. There is a difference in the seriousness of the subject (Iraq is much, much more important a subject than McCain’s stance on ID), but that’s a different issue. n.b.: I haven’t spent a lot of time on TP, but the little time I have spent there left me with an overall favorable impression of that site-- I think it’s one of the better ones out there. But they do spin stuff, even when they don’t need to. I think it’s just the nature of the beast (ie, a site whose primary objective is to push a political agenda). ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senate-to-vote-this-week-on-feingold-reid-bill-troops-must-leave-iraq-by-3-31-08/404108/9 "2007-05-17T01:02:52Z")
It’s surreal watching the Congress vote in ways that will directly lead to the deaths of hundreds of U.S. soldiers and the maiming of who knows how many. At least back in 2002 they could pretend about the flowers, candies, and grand squares named after Bush.