Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) held the Senate open for an all-night debate on Iraq, calling the conservatives’ bluff on the filibuster and highlighting “Republican resistance to allowing a simple majority vote on a plan to withdraw troops from Iraq.”
The conservative leadership quickly blasted Reid’s move as a political stunt. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said, “Our enemies aren’t threatened by talk-a-thons, and our troops deserve better than publicity stunts.”
As Atrios pointed out, today, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) hit back against McConnell, declaring that the “only stunt” that’s going on is conservatives who are enabling the Iraq war to continue:
The only that is going on here is by Republicans in the Senate who have continued to fabricate excuses for this Iraq war, year after year. They have been enablers of this tragedy. They have not shown the guts in most cases and vote to end this war. They will use every excuse, every slogan, every political trick to not let us end this war, so I would call that the stunt, and that’s the stunt that’s killing Americans.
Watch it:
Transcript:
BLITZER: When I spoke yesterday with the Republican leader, the Minority leader, Mitch McConnell, in the Senate, he said, it’s precisely these kinds of — what he would characterize as stunts, political stunts, whether an all-night debate involving Iraq or motion of censure, which is why the approval number — the job approval number — of Congress is even lower than it is for the President of the United States. Instead of focusing in on substantive issues, you’re focusing on political theater. What would you say to McConnell?
FEINGOLD: The only stunt that is going on here is by Republicans in the Senate who have continued to fabricate excuses for this Iraq war, year after year. They have been enablers of this tragedy. They have not shown the guts in most cases and vote to end this war. They will use every excuse, every slogan, every political trick to not let us end this war, so I would call that the stunt, and that’s the stunt that’s killing Americans. Not what I’m talking about.
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