Snowe cites ‘timidity’ in debate over Iraq

AUGUSTA – Just a few hours after Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, wrangled with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., over whether the U.S. Senate should recess for the Presidents Day break without debating Iraq policy, Reid announced that the Senate will convene in an unusual Saturday session to vote on the same Iraq resolution under debate in the House.

“The men and women in uniform on the front lines in Iraq are not taking a recess, the Iraq war is not taking a recess,” Snowe said in a floor speech Thursday, “but the United States Senate is taking a recess.”

She called on both Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Tenn., to work out a plan to allow a “full debate” on President Bush’s decision to increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, the “surge plan” that would temporarily add 21,500 troops to the Baghdad area. She said no other issue is of more importance to the American people.

“We should have the opportunity to debate and vote on the various questions,” Snowe said. “The fact is that we have allowed the gears of this deliberative process to become jammed with the monkey wrenches of timidity and partisanship, and I regret that.”

Reid said he was puzzled by Snowe’s comments and charged she was “coming late to the party” by urging debate immediately after voting against a motion last week that would have cleared the way for a debate and vote.

“Last week, when senators had the opportunity to hold an important debate about Iraq, she and others chose to prevent that debate,” Reid said. “The American people deserve to know where every member of Congress stands on the surge.”

Reid said he was “somewhat lost” by the logic of Snowe’s arguments, given her previous vote that blocked debate.

“Some senators, including my friend from Maine, voted against their own resolution by not invoking cloture,” he said. “Where were they last week, where were they when the Senate was trying to send a message to President Bush to stop the escalation? They were putting the political needs of the White House ahead of our troops’ need for a new direction in Iraq.”

Snowe spoke before Reid did on the Senate floor and did not respond directly to his criticisms.

Earlier, Snowe said that in her 29 years of service in both the House and the Senate, there have been a lot of major issues, from the Balkans to Panama to the first Gulf War. She said that despite differing positions, both chambers have always allowed debate on both majority and minority resolutions.

“We need a full debate on this issue,” she said.

A few hours after the floor exchange, Reid said the Senate would vote on the resolution the House is expected to approve that voices support for the American forces in Iraq while at the same time opposing Bush’s plan to send additional troops. The Senate had been scheduled to recess Thursday for a week.

With 233 Democrats in the House, and some of the 202 Republicans saying they will support the resolution, passage is expected by a substantial margin.

The House operates without some of the arcane Senate rules that allow a minority of lawmakers to tie up legislation by prolonging debate. A vote to stop debate is called a cloture motion.

Further attempts by GOP senators to offer their proposals as amendments to the House resolution are expected at the Saturday session of the Senate. There also may be efforts to offer one or more competing resolutions.