Meatstick News: Dick Durbin Says No More Funding Without Withdrawal

I hope he puts his money where his mouth is.
From The Swamp:

Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin promised today that he would no longer vote to fund the war in Iraq unless the money is tied to a withdrawal strategy.

Durbin voted in favor of the last round of Iraq funding so his statement is a bit of a change of attitude for him. As the assistant Senate Majority Leader he must be willing to continue to make statements like he did today and pressure his fellow Democrats to take a stand.

Again, from The Swamp:

Durbin’s commitment--and a forceful speech he delivered against new funding for Bush’s war strategy--positions an influential Senate leader in favor of a hard line at a moment when some Democrats are signaling a willingness to compromise on war funding.

Just to clarify Durbin's stance, he is not calling for immediate withdrawal of every troop within a short time frame, like has been called for by Bill Richardson and Dennis Kucinich. Durbin stated:

Durbin said he would no longer support the annual “supplemental” funding packages that the Bush administration has used to pay for the bulk of war costs—unless the legislation includes provisions to change strategy and bring the war to a quick end. “I’m looking for some language in there that gives me some hope that this war is going to end before I will vote for more (funding),” Durbin said in a conversation with reporters.

We need statements like Durbin's to be coming out of the mouths of other 'leaders' of the party. If you remember the last round of funding Hillary and Obama both voted against it. They will surely remind of us that in the next 18 months as they try to convince everyone they are against the war. I do applaud them for voting against it; however, I do not commend them for the way they did it. Instead of spending the day of the vote yelling and screaming to their counterparts about how they should not fund this war (like a good leader of a party would do), the two of them waited in silence until the last minute. They waited until they knew funding would pass and then they ran out and voted against it.

I have to wonder if Durbin's sudden hard line stance has anything to do with the fact that MoveOn.org and other groups are preparing to run third party candidates against Democratic Congressmen and Senators who will be up for reelection next year.

MoveOn has recently told Huffington Post:

"This fall, we face a pivotal series of votes on Iraq--votes that, if we win, could spell the end of the Iraq war. MoveOn members have made phone calls. We've held town meetings. We've run ads and written letters to the editor. But now, given this big moment, we have an important decision to make together. Should we support primary challengers against some Democrats?.... It's a tough question, and one we need everybody's input on."

An anonymous leader of the Democratic party quickly responded:

"What in the world are they thinking? All this is going to do is increase the possibility of electing more Republicans. Instead of going after Democrats, they should be focusing their efforts on pressuring Republicans to break with the president."

Somebody sounds scared...maybe they'll get the hint that the constituents aren't messing around anymore.