July 16, 2007 9:26 AM

On Iraq, It's The Senate Country Club vs. The Country At Large

Almost exactly two months ago, I wrote that Democrats need a Mr. Smith - someone, anyone in the Senate to shut the institution down in order to force Congress to respect the will of the American people and start ending the war in Iraq. Now, Democrats don't even need Mr. Smith-style bravery - they need only to force the Republicans to filibuster the effort to end the war.

Yes, that's right - Democrats have the power to make the Republican Party stand up on the floor of the Senate, and shut the government down in order to continue the Iraq War, if that's what the GOP wants to do. Miles Mogulescu at the Huffington Post explains:

In recent decades, there has been a "gentleman's agreement" that old-fashioned filibusters are no longer required: If 41 Senators block a vote, the Majority Leader just moves on to other business. Where once the filibuster was reserved for matters of national importance where a minority stood on principle, now the ease of filibustering has made it routine...Majority Leader Reid has the power, however, to ignore the "gentleman's" agreement and force an old-fashioned filibuster. Republican Minority Leader Bill Frist did this in 2003, forcing the Democrats to stage a real filibuster against the nomination of right-wing judge Miguel Estrada.

So, folks, here we are again, asking whether Democrats are going to use the power the public gave them in the 2006 election specifically to fulfill their election promises to end the war. The country is tired of Democrats' Innocent Bystander Fable (see the video above for what I mean). Nobody outside of Washington, D.C. believes - nor should they believe - that Democrats don't have the power to end the war, or must have 60 votes in order to end the war. Nobody believes those excuses because they are as dishonest and destructive as President Bush telling us Iraq had WMD.

It's time for Senate Democrats to stop respecting the supposed "rules" and etiquette of the Senate Country Club more than they respect the will of the country at large. As Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) recently told the Young Turks radio show, it's time to force the Republicans to publicly block the will of the American people.

Nobody - other than, perhaps, some U.S. Senators - cares about "gentlemen's agreements" with our troops being killed and maimed in a Middle Eastern civil war. Nobody - other than, perhaps, the David Broders of the world - cares about Democratic politicians hugging Republican politicians inside the U.S. Capitol, when our national security continues to be eroded by a misguided war. And nobody - other than a few weak-kneed career politicians - believes that the toothless half-measures being proposed by so-called "centrists" (read: politicians totally out of touch with the 70 percent of Americans who oppose the war) are anything but deliberate shams designed to give Washington lawmakers cover and perpetuate the war indefinitely.

Senator Reid - if you are serious about ending the war, then you will ignore the Miss Manners Book of U.S. Senate Politeness and finally force Republicans to filibuster your bill to stop the madness.

Call up Senator Reid at 202-224-3542 and tell him it's time for Senators to stand up for the country, not just for their country club.