{"id":2014,"date":"2007-07-25T08:12:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-25T14:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/07\/other-than-that-mrs-lincoln\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T14:10:54","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T20:10:54","slug":"other-than-that-mrs-lincoln","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/07\/other-than-that-mrs-lincoln\/","title":{"rendered":"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Carter Bundy<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Last week, as always, my blogging arch-nemesis Whitney Cheshire<\/a> had some great insights: Bill McCamley<\/a> appears likely to be the Second Congressional District\u2019s Democratic nominee; McCamley is hustling his tail off; the district has a conservative streak; and incumbent Steve Pearce<\/a> is going to be able to raise oil and gas money.<\/p>\n

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What wasn\u2019t mentioned is that we\u2019re in the fourth year of a war that isn\u2019t going anything like planned (quite the understatement, and awfully generous of me to imply there was a plan). Here\u2019s what we have to show for it: <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Thousands of dead, brave American military heroes.<\/p>\n

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\u2022 Tens of thousands more physically, mentally and\/or emotionally devastated vets.<\/p>\n

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\u2022 Hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis.<\/p>\n

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\u2022 A faltering Afghan effort that would have been put to bed years ago absent a massive diversion into Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>.<\/p>\n

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\u2022 A military stretched so thin that our National Guard has been converted to nearly permanent military status to shore us up.<\/p>\n

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\u2022 Expenditures bounding rapidly towards one Trillion dollars. Yeah, that\u2019s a capital \u201cT.\u201d<\/p>\n

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All of which might be worth it, were we safer or closer to isolating our real national threat, Al Qaeda. Instead, a new national intelligence estimate notes that Al Qaeda is stronger than ever. A previous estimate even laid the blame for Al Qaeda\u2019s growing strength directly on our invasion of and continued presence in Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>.<\/p>\n

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Now we face an unbelievably tough dilemma: How do we get the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own future without letting them slip into a genocidal civil war or creating a safe haven for Al Qaeda?<\/p>\n

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One thing\u2019s for sure: The American people, or a vast majority of them, are done trusting the dimwits who put us in this position. This week\u2019s Washington Post-ABC News poll<\/a> gives L\u2019il Bush a whopping 31-percent approval rating for his handling of Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>.<\/p>\n

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Even more startling, 62 percent of Americans say the Democratic Congress, otherwise not terribly popular either, \u201cshould have the final say on when to bring the troops home.\u201d Congressional Democrats have been nearly unanimous in demanding a fixed timetable to start disengaging from Iraq<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place>, and Americans know it. That\u2019s what we want.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Pearce has Bush\u2019s stubbornness on Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Yes, the Second Congressional District of New Mexico has one of the highest military populations in America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. But many vets and active-duty personnel realize, even more than civilian America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>, that an open-ended commitment, with no end in sight, is a terrible plan. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In the same Post poll, those who had served or had a close friend or relative who served in Iraq \u2013 in other words, those most likely to be loyal to the commander-in-chief, and the ones who have seen up close the good and great efforts of our military \u2013 overwhelmingly disapprove of the president\u2019s handling of Iraq. Only 38 percent approve. Even if the entire Second Congressional District were military, which it\u2019s not, it wouldn\u2019t be dramatically different from the rest of the country.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

New Mexico<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> has three Republicans in its federal delegation. One of them, Pete Domenici<\/a>, just voted against timetables. Another, Heather Wilson<\/a>, likewise voted for an open-ended commitment by refusing to establish any timetable. <\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s what\u2019s scary for Pearce: He, Domenici and Wilson all support the heart of the president\u2019s plan, an open-ended commitment to staying in Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. But unlike the latter two, Pearce isn\u2019t even trying, or pretending to try, to distance himself from the president\u2019s open-ended commitment. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Does Pearce really think Americans are going to continue to watch their children die while the Iraqis staff up, what, three of 103 units in a four-year period? Or are they all the way up to six? Huzzah!<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Regardless of whether you thought this war was justified, smart or honestly presented to the American people, it\u2019s getting pretty obvious that the Iraqis need a swift kick in the pants to get moving. The Pearce-led, open-ended Iraqi-coddling policy ain\u2019t it.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Despite all this, the words \u201cIraq<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place>\u201d and \u201cwar\u201d somehow managed to weasel their way out of Ms. Cheshire\u2019s discussion of this potentially competitive congressional race, replaced by the ever-popular Continental Divide Trail. The trail is offset by Pearce\u2019s proposals to turn Otero Mesa into an oil slick, but still, who doesn\u2019t like a nice trail?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

If McCamley (or any Democrat for that matter) has any message discipline, he\u2019ll decline the great trail debate and jump all over Pearce\u2019s stubborn insistence on an open-ended commitment to our occupation of Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Stubbornness ain\u2019t as cute as it used to be, either: An incredible 80 percent of Americans say Bush is not willing enough to change policies on Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. Since Pearce isn\u2019t even pretending to differ from W, it\u2019s hard to see how voters aren\u2019t going to tag him with the same stubborn label.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

All is takes is 9.5 percent<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

McCamley\u2019s raising money exceptionally well in a district that, as of right now, is not a top-tier target of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee<\/a>. McCamley\u2019s energy and money, and Pearce\u2019s stubborn loyalty to a president who has bungled every aspect of this war, are going to make this a much closer race than last year\u2019s 19-point Pearce win.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

All it takes is a mere 9.5 percent of the electorate, seeing a better-financed, better-known and more energetic Dem campaign than \u201806, to decide that maybe it\u2019s time for a new direction on the most important issue of the day, and Pearce is gone. Has 9.5 percent more of the district reached a breaking point with Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>? <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know, but I\u2019ll bet the number isn\u2019t that far off. Ms. Cheshire\u2019s otherwise astute article overlooked that one little issue. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME<\/a> in New Mexico<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>. The opinions in his column are personal and in no way reflect any official AFSCME position. You can learn more about him by clicking here<\/a>. Contact him at carterbundy@yahoo.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carter Bundy Last week, as always, my blogging arch-nemesis Whitney Cheshire had some great insights: Bill McCamley appears likely to be the Second Congressional District\u2019s Democratic nominee; McCamley is hustling his tail off; the district has a conservative streak; and incumbent Steve Pearce is going to be able to raise oil and gas money. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bundy-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}