Senate About to Vote on Nonbinding Resolution

Anne Flaherty reports for the AP that it’s unlikely that the U.S. Senate will pass the nonbinding resolution rejecting Bush’s surge. Majority Leader Harry Reid realizes this as well:

“Americans deserve to know whether their senator stands with the president and his plan to deepen our military commitment in Iraq, or with the overwhelming majority of Americans who oppose this escalation.”

That’s nice and all, but I can imagine that quite some Americans would like their Senators to do something less symbolic and more effective. On the other hand, fellow co-blogger Paul Silver wrote in the comments section of Nick Rivera’s guest post:

I think the Resolution is an appropriate first step that aims to establish a context for a negotiation while allowing the President to save face by starting to accommodate the concerns. To have started out by demanding specific changes in policy and execution would have unnecessarily closed down communication between the congress and president. I have been negotiating deals for 30 years in Real Estate, Business and with Vendors and this is how I would start: by letting my opposition know that there is an issue that is important to me. Often they would take the initiative to meet me in the middle.

Good point. However, should also wonder whether George W. Bush is willing to compromise, whether he is willing to listen to the opposition.

When he was Governor of Texas, he was able to work together with the opposition. As President, however, it’s quite a different story.

Some people are convinced that Bush will not be willing to listen to the opposition, that he will not be willing to compromise, etc. Like Paul, I beg to differ. Many people also thought that Bush would not change his approach regarding diplomacy / dealing with Europe: the first few years of his Presidency were, from a diplomatic perspective, absolutely horrible. However, during the course of the years, he changed his approach and he’s now paying much more attention to what European countries think of things.

If he was able to change his attitude towards Europe, it seems to me that he must also be able to change his attitude towards the Democrats.

When one looks at today’s situation like that, today’s vote will not merely be symbolic: it will, or at least might, make a difference. As Paul pointed out in the comment I quoted above, it could be seen as the start of serious negotiations: first see where everybody stands… make it be known that this truly is a major issue and that one is dedicated to do something about it.

It’s very important to read Joe’s post from yesterday called Broder: George Bush Has Regained His Political Footing. Reading that post, one gets the feeling that Bush is handling the entire debate in a very smart manner. His tone has changed, he doesn’t argue that actively against this nonbinding resolution, instead he simply (in Joe’s words) “pooh-poohed the vote’s importance, thus shifting the real fight to binding war-related votes to come.”

In this situation it seems that Bush is not prepared to compromise or that he is willing to negotiate, but only when Senate starts talking about binding resolutions instead of nonbinding ones.

Meanwhile, the AP notes that support for the surge has increased from 26% to 35%. Will this make a change and will this percentage grow or is ‘the base’ returning? If it’s simply the base that’s returning, this is about the maximum support Bush can get for his plan. It will be interesting to see whether, in the course of the coming weeks / months, Independents will join their ranks: something I do not consider to be impossible.

Also read Ed Morrissey’s take on this. He explains that one should “watch Lieberman carefully. He has no love for Harry Reid’s leadership after the last election, and he has made clear that the Democrats have angered him with their political grandstanding. He threatened to bolt the Democratic caucus if they started pressing for a cutoff of funds, but he may tire of his peers well before that stage, especially with this Saturday session.”