Congressional Dems Introduce Bill to Prevent Bush From Signing Long-Term Agreement Without Congressional Approval

On January 13, 2008, we published an entry in which we said that Democrats need to introduce legislation prohibiting Bush from entering agreements with the Iraqi government that continue beyond the end of his presidency. Imagine our delight, and to be honest, also our chagrin, when we found out that Congressional Democrats have done, and are doing, just that. One bill has been introduced by Senator Hillary Clinton in the Senate and another bill will be introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT).

Rep. DeLauro will introduce the Iraq Strategic Agreement Review Act of 2008, which would require the administration to consult with Congress on the agreement and withhold funds for the agreement if it did not come in the form of a formal treaty. “We simply cannot allow the Administration to finalize an agreement that could lead to permanent bases in Iraq and other major economic and political commitments without Congressional consultations and approval," she says in a statement on the bill.

This is only the first step, however. The second step is to big it a political issue when the Republicans bottle it up in the Senate or Bush vetoes it and the Republicans don't provide enough votes to override his veto. What Democrats need to do is take our full page ads in about 100 of the biggest newspapers in the US asking Americans if they want to see American troops in Iraq until 2018. If they don't, ask them to call their Republican Senators and Representatives. If the DSCC and/or the DCCC ran such ads, they would receive a lot of coverage and move this issue up on the media's agenda.

Too often, politicians and their advisers act as if ads on television are the only way to go. A lot of people, however, read the newspapers. You could probably potentially reach 50 million or so readers with such an effort. The cost would be negligible compared to running 30 second tv spots, and you would probably get just as much of an impact. It is time to think outside the box, pun intended.