Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Oklahoma's GOP Senators: Don't Debate Iraq War

The latest political maneuvering over the Iraq war finds Oklahoma's Republican senators disagreeing with most of their Republican colleagues.

Sens. Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn can be (and often are) unreasonably partisan—that's part of their public record. Nevertheless, both Oklahomans voted against a measure to allow a full senate debate on the war, votes that put them at odds with 39 other senate Republicans, including many so-called hawks.

The 39 Republicans joined with 50 Democrats to allow the Iraq war debate to proceed. Many in the Republican majority welcomed the debate, which they are using to attack the Democratic position on the war and troop withdrawal.

Only nine senators, all Republicans, voted against the measure. Apparently, these nine are so pro-war that no debate can be tolerated.

We have no idea what Oklahoma's senators were thinking. But they do the citizens of Oklahoma no service when they stick their heads in the sand and pretend like all is well in Iraq.

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