Foiled Again in the Senate

The Democrats have floated a number of measures intended to bring about failure in Iraq. They had their highest hopes for Jim Webb’s proposal to mandate that troops spend at least as much time at home, training with their units, as deployed overseas. This measure sounds pro-troop, but would have the fully-intended effect of making it impossible to staff our current effort in Iraq. Today, Webb’s bill failed to achieve cloture in the Senate on a 56-44 vote. So it seems unlikely that the Democrats will be able to achieve anything legislatively in the near future.
UPDATE: The roll call is here. Joe Lieberman was the only Democrat to vote against Webb’s bill; a number of Republicans who are sometimes seen as squishy voted “No,” but those whose seats are most likely to be at risk generally voted with the Democrats: Coleman, Collins, Smith, Snowe and Sununu. Plus Chuck Hagel, who is on the way out and apparently voted on principle. Give Larry Craig credit; he’s on the way out too, but at least he didn’t vote with the Dems.
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