Hil's Gambit, Byrd's Idea

Give them an A for ingenuity.

Sen. Hilary Clinton has backed Sen. Robert Byrd's plan to revoke Congressional authority for the Iraq action which it gave Bush in 2002:

""Authorization to use force has run its course, and it is time to reverse the failed policies of President Bush," Clinton said, taking to the Senate floor.

"It is time to sunset the authorization for the war in Iraq," she said. "If the President will not bring himself to accept reality, it is time for Congress to bring reality to him."
The bill would yank Congress' approval on Oct. 11 and require Bush to seek new authority.
Byrd said the original reasons for the authorization - Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction - are long gone. "

It's not often you'll hear the words "original thinking" and "Democrat" in the same sentence, but sure enough this is one of the best tactics they've come up with in ages, and while it was Byrd's plan (or at least one of his aides), Hil should get credit for stepping up to the plate and being the first of the Presidential candidates to embrace the policy. It gives her the ability to 'turn back the clock' so to say, and take back the vote that got us in this mess in the first place. Thus, she'll apologize for her vote without having to say sorry. Furthermore, any attempt to pull funding will be a mess and, as I've mentioned before, the timetable idea is dead.

You'd think that the other candidates and Democratic leadership would get behind this--but the Democrats wouldn't be Democrats without division:

"It was not clear yesterday that the push would get much support while congressional leaders work with the White House to come up with an emergency spending plan to replace the one Bush vetoed Tuesday. "It's one of a number of options," said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

"Clinton's Democratic rivals for the White House did not object to the idea, but none - including Sen. Barack Obama - sounded likely to back it.

""As someone who opposed this war from the start, and opposed its authorization by those in Congress, Sen. Obama would support this measure. But he doesn't believe we should wait until October to begin bringing this war to a close," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement."

By the way, when you hear "it's one of a number of options" you should translate that to "it's getting polled as we speak," since politicians can't get behind anything including the proper way to wipe their asses until it gets the crap (pun not intended) polled out of it. To me any Congressman who claims to have regretted, or in Obama's case, didn't have the chance to vote on the Iraq resolution, should immediately jump on this to show, through actions and not rhetoric, their opposition to this war. It's a good plan, and right now, it's the best way to get our troops out of harm's way.