It's Slowly Dawning On The Powers That Be, Even ReThug Powers That Be

Wolf Blitzer & Sen. Lugar (R-IN) talk. Via, of course, Crooks & Liars. I'm glad somebody watches these Sunday morning "news" shows, I can't make myself do it anymore. I just love my satellite teevee.

Blitzer: “Is the U.S. military over stretched to the point that it can’t get the missions done with, Senator Lugar?”

Lugar: “Well, the testimony seems to be to that effect. That is, that we simply do not have, presently, enough armed forces to accomplish or missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, quite apart from anything else that might occur in the world. And yet, in this hearing on Iraq, Iran kept being mentioned. That that the Iranians are intruding, a proxy war is being fought. In other words, it was almost as if we were justifying our continued presence in Iraq with the fact that we may be in a conflict in Iran and furthermore, the al Qaeda wherever they may be. It’s a very confusing picture, to say the least. Now, it seems to me we’re going to have to come to grips with what is possible in Iraq and what kind of forces are required for that, but we’re certainly not at that point in the hearings. This is - I agree with Joe Biden, was simply punting the thing down the road and probably into the next administration and whoever the candidates may be right now, they face a awesome task of turning around a situation that really has not been resolved during this administration.“

Before anyone falls too much in love with the "moderate" Sen. Lugar, chew on these stats for awhile.

Richard Lugar has voted with a majority of his Republican colleagues 78.6% of the time during the current Congress. This percentage does not include votes in which Lugar did not vote. See a list of his votes against his party since 1991, a list of all Senators in the 110th Congress with a similar score, or a full list of party voters.
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9/20/07 Vote 345: H R 1585: Feingold Amdt. No. 2924; To safely redeploy United States troops from Iraq. No No
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9/20/07 Vote 344: H R 1585: Cornyn Amdt. No. 2934; To express the sense of the Senate that General David H. Petraeus, Commanding General, Multi-National Force-Iraq, deserves the full support of the Senate and strongly condemn personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all members of the United States Armed Forces. Yes Yes
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9/20/07 Vote 343: H R 1585: Boxer Amdt. No. 2947; To reaffirm strong support for all the men and women of the United States Armed Forces and to strongly condemn attacks on the honor, integrity, and patriotism of any individual who is serving or has served honorably in the United States Armed Forces, by any person or organization. No No
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9/19/07 Vote 341: H R 1585: Webb Amdt. No. 2909; To specify minimum periods between deployment of units and members of the Armed Forces deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. No No
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7/18/07 Vote 252: On the Motion: Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Levin Amdt. No. 2087; To provide for a reduction and transition of United States forces in Iraq. No No

From the WaPo archives. Actually, you can find all the votes by any of the members of Congress in the database. Pretty cool, actually. & for those of you who still think John McCain is some sort of maverick, he votes with his ReThug party 88.3% of the time, Lugar only 78.6%, as noted above.