Senate committee repudiates Bush on Iraq

In a calculated snub of President Bush, the Democratic-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee dismissed plans for a troop buildup in Iraq on Wednesday as "not in the national interest" of the United States. (In a 'calculated snub'? WTF??? 'the Democratic-contolled SFRC DISMISSED PLANS'? This sounds more like a right wing editorial piece than a news story! ATTENTION Associated Press - the SFRC VOTED....they didn't dismiss....they VOTED. They considered the President's plan and decided it was a bad plan. News Flash!! That's not a snub. That's democracy. I know the media, like the president may not know what oversight looks like -- hell, I don't even think either of you knows what it means. Get a Webster - look it up - then, sit back and watch!)

"The president has made his decision," Vice President Dick Cheney fired back, a response that made it clear the administration would go ahead anyway. "We need to get the job done."

The committee vote, 12-9 along party lines, capped hours of debate in which Republicans and Democrats vented their frustration and anger — both with the administration and their own past unwillingness to change the course of a war that has claimed the lives of more than 3,000 U.S. troops.

"There is no strategy. This is a pingpong game with American lives," said Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record) of Nebraska.

"This Congress was never meant to be a rubber stamp," added Sen. Barbara Boxer (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., "Read the Constitution. The Congress has the power to declare war. And on multiple occasions, we used our power to end conflicts."