Webb's Challenge To GOP: Will You Support The Troops?
This morning, you're about to see round one in the fight that Sen. Jim Webb has been spoiling for -- and, to some extent, was elected to the Senate to pursue. Should his Iraq amendment fail today, Webb, a combat veteran and Reagan-era defense official, will pose a blunt question to his GOP colleagues: Why aren't you supporting the troops?Webb's (D-VA) amendment to the defense authorization bill is coming up for a vote at 11:30 A.M. today. It's the first of many showdowns between Senate Dems and the dwindling band of GOP war supporters set for coming days.
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And should the amendment go down, Webb's team has a Plan B at the ready: putting the albatross of not supporting the troops around the GOP's neck.
"If it's defeated, the alternative is to go out there and raise hell about why they are wrong to block this," says Webb spokeswoman Kimberly Hunter. "This is a pretty straight vote. It's a narrow bill. It's about supporting the troops. What it's about is what they don't want to admit they're doing, which is not supporting the troops. We'll take that back and try to resonate it."
