Lawmakers have kept Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice busy on Capitol Hill this week. She testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about the Iraq war today. A day earlier, she appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to discuss the Middle East peace process and other topics.
UPDATE, 10/26: House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman has earned a reputation for holding the Bush administration accountable on various fronts, and the California Democrat grilled Rice at his panel’s hearing.
Rep. Fortney (Pete) Stark today apologized to President Bush, U.S. troops in Iraq and his House colleagues for saying last week that Bush “just likes to blow things up” and that Republicans in Congress want “kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president’s amusement.”
Stark, D-Calif., made the emotional apology on the House floor after a majority of his Democratic colleagues killed a resolution that would have reprimanded Stark for last week’s speech. In that instance, Stark accused Republicans of choosing to fund a war that kills children rather than authorize more money for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
The vote to table the resolution was 196-173. All 168 Republicans present voted against tabling it, as did five Democrats. Eight other Democrats voted “present” rather than side with Stark.
“I hope that with this apology I will become as insignificant as I should be and that we can return to the issues that do divide us but that we can resolve in a better fashion,” Stark said.
President Bush today defended his proposal for an extra $46 billion for the Defense Department in fiscal 2008, saying that the money outside the normal budget process would fund “urgent military necessities.” The request was made only days after the new fiscal year began Oct. 1.
“The majority of the supplemental funding … is for day-to-day military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Bush said in the Oval Office. “The bill provides for basic needs like bullets and body armor, protection against [improvised explosive devices], and mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles. It also funds training missions, vital embassy programs, improvements in Iraq and Iraqi security forces, and intelligence operations that protect our troops.”
AP reported that military operations in Afganistan and Iraq already have cost $455 billion over five years.
Bush acknowledged that some Democrats in Congress oppose more funding for the wars and said “they should make their views heard. But they ought to make sure our troops have what it takes to succeed. Our men and women on the front lines should not be caught in the middle of partisan disagreements in Washington.”
Wisconsin’s Paul Ryan, the top Republican on the House Budget Committee, dismissed the idea of a special tax to pay for the Iraq war and discussed other budget and economic issues in this week’s episode of C-SPAN’s “Newsmaker” program.
“I don’t support the war tax,” Ryan said. “I think that’s a very wrong-headed thing to do.” But he added that to the extent the United States can budget for military efforts, the Bush administration for budget for it rather than coming back to Congress repeatedly and seeking supplemental spending outside the normal annual budget.
Producer’s Note: AirCongress has entered a partnership with BlogTalkRadio to promote federal policy and political content produced by the company’s Internet-based talk-show hosts. This is the first report resulting from that partnership.
If retired Army Gen. Ricardo Sanchez truly believed that the “neglect and incompetence” of policymakers led the United States into an “intractable situation” in Iraq, he should have been more forthright before leaving the military, Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Monday.
In an interview with Ed Morrissey of Heading Right Radio, McCain took Sanchez to task for his recent criticisms of the handling of the Iraq war, including in a Friday speech to military reporters and editors. McCain, a senator from Arizona who serves on the Armed Services Committee, said Sanchez never shared any of his views with Congress or McCain personally despite multiple opportunities.
“He was asked in several hearings about the strategy, and he not only didn’t complain about it … but he supported it,” McCain told Morrissey. “And I wish he had done that [criticism] back when he was on active duty.” McCain added that high-level military officials are “required” to be candid with Congress when asked about military policy.
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