Feingold to Chair Hearing on Ending the War

Finally, after six years of rubberstamping Bush's failed policies, we have a debate and the media is listening. See, the Democrats and those opposed to the occupation actually *disagree* with each other, but Bush fans and those who favor the occupation aren't used to hearing dissent. The question of the day is, what's the alternative plan? Well, there have been several plans on the table, but they haven't received much press and the decider could care less about them. Remember the Iraq Study Group? The national media couldn't wait for it to come out, yet the decider ignored it.

These are remarks from Senator Feingold at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting on Wednesday:

"Despite the powerful hearings and testimony in August that we all heard, with the questions that were raised about the Iraq war, I was stunned, not only that the administration wanted to do this, but that my colleagues could vote for such a bizarre response to what happened on 9/11.

This committee did not rise to the occasion.

And then, as this war unfolded and it became clear not only that it had nothing to do really with WMD or Al Qaeda, and that it wasn't working out, some of us said: You know, we ought to figure out a way to get out. And I proposed a timetable in August of 2005 saying we ought to have these troops out by the end of 2006."

On Tuesday, January 30th, U.S. Senator Russ Feingold will chair a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing entitled, “Exercising Congress’s Constitutional Power to End a War.” Earlier this month, Feingold, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, became the first Senator to call on Congress to use its power of the purse to redeploy our troops safely from Iraq so that we can refocus on the global terrorist networks that threaten our national security. Feingold proposed this action after President George Bush announced plans to escalate our military involvement in Iraq despite the objections of members of both parties, military and foreign policy experts, and the American people.

“Congress holds the power of the purse and if the President continues to advance his failed Iraq policy, we have the responsibility to use that power to safely redeploy our troops from Iraq,” Feingold said. “This hearing will help inform my colleagues and the public about Congress’s power to end a war and how that power has been used in the past. I will soon be introducing legislation to use the power of the purse to end what is clearly one of the greatest mistakes in the history of our nation’s foreign policy.”

Witnesses at the hearing will include:

Louis Fisher, Library of Congress:
Prof. Walter Dellinger, Duke University School of Law, former Solicitor General of the United States
Prof. David Barron, Harvard Law School
Prof. Robert Turner, University of Virginia Law School