You gotta love him. At last, a senator is expressing the outrage the country feels over the failure of the White House and their Defense Department to end the Iraq war.
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), who is chairman of the Appropriations Committee, lost it when he heard the new funding request for the Iraq war from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace... a total of almost $190 billion in all for 2008 alone.
"All of this for a war -- a war! a war! -- that General Petraeus, two weeks ago, could not say had made Americans safer!
"A long-term presence could cost well in excess of 2 trillion -- 2 trillion! Yes, you heard me -- 2 trillion!"
Including the audience into his outrage-along, Byrd asked if we are really seeking progress toward a stable, secure Iraq?.... "No!" the demonstrators shouted.
He asked if our continuing occupation is encouraging the Iraqi people to step up?.... "No!" they boomed.
The charged-up anti-war group Code Pink continued heckling until Byrd had to suspend the hearing in the midst of Sen. Tom Harkin's (D-IA) challenge to Pace's view that homosexuality is immoral.... "counter to God's law" Pace self-righteously intoned.
During the melee that followed, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) turned on Harkin for raising the subject.... "You should be ashamed" Gregg scolded.
Harkin huffed, "I don't need any lectures from you!"
But, it was a day for lectures, and Byrd was in fine lecture fettle. He chided " 'Mission Accomplished' has turned into a commitment to have our grandchildren patrolling Baghdad into the middle of this century!.... Instead of a coalition of the willing, what we really have is a coalition of contractors.."
And so it went until Harkin asked Pace about his views on gays in the military and Pace's reply created such an outburst of "boos" that Byrd finally cleared the room.
But not before Byrd's point was made.... we're mad, and we're not going to give the White House's big-spending Iraq-war agenda a free ride anymore!
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