Tomorrow's "60 Minutes" Is a Must-Watch

Technorati Tags: 60 Minutes, Pres. Bush, Congress, Jack Murtha, Ted Kennedy, Authorization for Use of Military Force

Bush tells 60 Minutes that he's going to escalate, and Congress be damned.

Tennessee Guerrilla Women asks, "If Bush is stark raving mad and behaving in ways that are leading us straight to World War III, can he even be stopped?" TGW's link is to Down With Tyranny! which tells us the various ways Congress is trying to do just that:

Today Ari Berman reports in The Nation about Jack Murtha's talk to the Congressional Progressive Caucus about the nuts and bolts of reigning in Bush's escalation plans, plans Murtha and Speaker Pelosi have worked out very carefully.

Murtha announced his intention to use the power of the purse try and close US prisons at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, eliminate the signing statements President Bush uses to secretly expand executive power and restrict the building of permanent bases in Iraq.

And starting February 17, Murtha will begin holding "extensive hearings" to block an escalation of the war in Iraq and ultimately redeploy US troops out of the conflict. Murtha predicts that a non-binding
resolution criticizing Bush's expansion of the war would pass the Congress by a two to one vote. But
he believes that only money, not words, will get the President's attention.

When he receives the Bush Administration's $100 billion supplemental spending request for Iraq on February 5, Murtha says "they'll have to justify every cent they want." He'll insist that no money be allocated for an escalation unless the military can meet normal readiness levels. "We should not spend money to send people overseas unless they replenish the strategic reserve," Murtha says. He expects to have one hundred and twenty days to act before the Administration deploys the second phase of additional troops to Iraq. "If he wants to veto the bill," Murtha says of Bush, "he won't have any money."

Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA) is willing to go a step further. Yesterday he introduced a bill that would repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution 2002. "The longer this war drags on, the clearer it becomes that it is the wrong war at the wrong time for the wrong reasons. Trying to make up for the fact that the administration insisted on going into Iraq with too few troops more than three years ago by escalating our involvement now is not a 'new strategy.' There is a way forward, but that way is through withdrawing, not sending more troops," explained Congressman Farr.