Posted on 10/10/2002 8:18:05 AM PDT by Dallas
WASHINGTON (AP) Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle put aside his misgivings Thursday and announced he will support President Bush (news - web sites)'s request for authority to use force against Iraq. "I believe it is important for America to speak with one voice," Daschle declared.
His announcement of support came as both chambers marched toward expected approval of the war resolution by wide bipartisan margins.
Daschle's support was crucial to the administration's hope for a substantial vote. He was the last holdout among major Democratic congressional leaders.
Previously, Daschle had not signed onto the agreement moving through Congress, which was the product of negotiations between the White House and House leaders.
Daschle said the measure still has shortcomings, but he called it an improvement over the administration's initial request for broad authority.
The bipartisan agreement gives the president most of the powers he asked for, allowing him to act without going through the United Nations (news - web sites). But in a concession to Democratic concerns, it encourages him to exhaust all diplomatic means first and requires he report to Congress every 60 days if he does take action.
Earlier, both houses brushed aside efforts to weaken the war resolution. The House was expected to pass the measure later Thursday. A Senate vote was expected by late Thursday or Friday.
By a 66-31 vote, the Senate rejected an amendment by Sen. Robert Byrd (news, bio, voting record), D-W.Va. — the most outspoken Senate opponent of the war resolution that would have ended the authorization for him to use force against Iraq after two years.
Minutes later, the House also turned back, by 355-72, an alternative offered by Rep. Barbara Lee (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., that would have committed the United States to the U.N. inspections process but not authorized unilateral force. "I plead with you to avoid this rush to war," Lee said.
Bipartisan support for Bush's request for war authority was growing steadily, and chances seemed good he'd have the measure on his desk by week's end to put the nation on combat-ready footing.
"The president hopes this will send a strong message to the world, and to Iraq, that if Iraq does not obey the U.N. resolutions, that the United States is prepared to enforce the peace," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said.
Bush, who has stressed that he has made no decision on launching a military strike against Baghdad, has urged Congress to stand with him as he presses the U.N. Security Council to approve a new resolution demanding that Iraq abide by comprehensive inspections and disarmament or face the consequences.
The Senate was likely to clear a hurdle Thursday with a vote to deter a possible filibuster by Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., a tenacious opponent of ceding congressional warmaking powers to the president.
"Congress is being stampeded, pressured, adjured, importuned into acting on this blank check," said Byrd, the Senate's 84-year-old president pro tempore.
Progress was slower on the diplomatic front, where three members of the U.N. Security Council — France, Russia and China — continued to hold out against a U.S.-British proposal sanctioning military action if Iraq does not comply with coercive inspections.
A 25-minute telephone call between Bush and French President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday failed to yield a breakthrough over wording of a new Security Council resolution to disarm Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). "This is intricate diplomacy and we are continuing our consultations," White House spokesman Sean McCormack said.
In Paris, Chirac spokeswoman Catherine Colonna said the French president was open to strengthening the powers of U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq, but still could not accept making military recourse an automatic response should they be hampered. In Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov relayed a similar stance.
Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites), interviewed on CNN's "Larry King Live" program, said world leaders were coming together on Iraq. "There is a new determination, a new understanding within the international community that we cannot turn away from it this time, we cannot look away and trust Saddam Hussein to do the right thing," he said.
Debate in the House went deep into the night both Tuesday and Wednesday, with nearly every member intent on expressing the necessity, and gravity, of granting authority to send Americans into war.
"I know the heartache and pain of the families that are left behind," said a tearful Rep. Randy Cunningham (news, bio, voting record), R-Calif., who was a pilot in the Vietnam War.
But Cunningham and almost every Republican backed the president. "It's time we go straight to the eye and dismantle the elements from which the storm of brutal, repressive tyranny and terrorism radiate," said Rep. Porter Goss (news, bio, voting record), R-Fla., He said that as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, "I can attest to the evilness of Saddam Hussein."
About half the Democrats were ready to vote for an alternative proposal, sponsored by Rep. John Spratt (news, bio, voting record), D-S.C., that would authorize the use of U.S. force in conjunction with U.N. punishment of Iraq, but require the president to come back for a second vote if he wants to act unilaterally against Saddam. The White House-backed resolution encourages cooperation with U.N. efforts, but gives the go-ahead for unilateral action.
Many Democrats said unilateral action could come at a terrible cost in lives and resources, set a bad precedent for other countries seeking to depose the leaders of other countries and create a backlash in the Muslim world.
"It is not a victory to strike down one tyrant and breed 10,000 terrorists," said Rep. Jay Inslee (news, bio, voting record), D-Wash., a supporter of the Spratt proposal.
A similar proposal offered by Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., and debated Wednesday night in the Senate also seemed headed for defeat. An amendment by Sen. Bob Graham (news, bio, voting record), D-Fla., to expand Bush's authority for pre-emptive military action to include five terror organizations, went down, 88-10.
At the same time, several senior Democrats said they would support the White House-backed resolution, with reservations, including Sen. Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) of Nevada, the Senate's second-ranked Democrat, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del.
Reid urged Bush to use his war-making powers carefully, saying: "As president of the United States, you are the leader of the free world, not its ruler." Biden, who had favored more checks on presidential authority, came along as well, saying the measure would help give the administration more leverage before the Security Council.
"If Saddam Hussein is around five years from now, we are in deep trouble as a country," Biden said.
Ha!
His written text included the remark where he personally was giving the President the authority for war.
The little SOB needs a good dragging.
How anyone can be such a two-faced liar in front of MILLIONS of people and still get elected is amazing to me.
Last time Daschle voted against going to war and we clobbered Iraq!
Senator Daschle is playing both sides of the issue.
ROFLMAO, With all that shaking, Byrd wets his pants weather he makes to the restroom or not
Actually, last time force was brought up, Daschle was for it...in fact, he initiated the proposal...
Later in 1998, Senator Tom Daschle - now the Senate Majority Leader -- lobbied for a Congressional resolution to take "all necessary measures" to respond to the Iraqi threat. At the time, a large number of U.S. allies opposed any U.S. military action. Daschle responded to questions about the need for action this way: "Look, we have exhausted, virtually, our diplomatic effort to get the Iraqis to comply with their own agreements and with international law. Given that, what other option is there but to force them to do so?"
But of course, that is when Clinton was in office...Daschle, by his actions, once again has shown partisanship is more important to him than security for the American people.
His announcement of support came as both chambers marched toward expected approval of the war resolution by wide bipartisan margins.
Bipartisan support for Bush's request for war authority was growing steadily, and chances seemed good he'd have the measure on his desk by week's end to put the nation on combat-ready footing.
"The president hopes this will send a strong message to the world, and to Iraq, that if Iraq does not obey the U.N. resolutions, that the United States is prepared to enforce the peace," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said.
Hey Iraqi lovers here and around the world, a strong message is getting ready to come to Iraq and remove the mass murderer Saddam and his henchmen.
Death to all Islamofascists, Islamakazis and their supporters around the world!
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