10/11/2007
10/11/2007
#110/11/2007
Posted: 5/4/07 at 7:28am
An interesting if imperfect response to Bush's veto: Senators Byrd and Clinton will introduce language to end the 2002 war authorization on October 11, its 5th anniversary.
The president would have to go to Congress--and the American people--for ANOTHER authorization.
Those of us old enough might remember that in 1971, Congress deauthorized the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin resolution. It was the first step toward ending the Vietnam War.
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NEWSDAY
Clinton seeks sunset of Iraq war authorization
BY GLENN THRUSH
May 3, 2007, 9:17 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's great liability among Democratic primary voters is her October 2002 vote authorizing the Iraq invasion, but Thursday she introduced legislation that might effectively erase that "yes" by deauthorizing the war.
Clinton (D-N.Y.), joining Senate elder statesman Robert Byrd (D-W.V.), called upon President George W. Bush to present Congress with a new case for re-authorizing the war. Earlier this week, Bush vetoed Democrats' war appropriations bills linked to White House acceptance of withdrawal benchmarks.
Under the bill, the 2002 authorization, based on the now-discredited claim that Saddam Hussein planned to use weapons of mass destruction, would lapse on the fifth anniversary of its passage, Oct. 11, 2007.
"It is time to sunset the authorization for the war in Iraq," a hoarse Clinton said on the Senate floor Thursday. "If the president will not bring himself to accept reality, it is time for Congress to bring reality to him."
[more at link]
Clinton seeks sunset of Iraq war authorization
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