Well ain’t this a biscuit?
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) did something a little unusual yesterday. First he protested when Republican leadership scheduled his own bill for a vote.
Then he sent out a letter encouraging his Democratic colleagues to vote against it.
Rangel’s bill, which the leadership had placed on the suspension calendar, would create a national-service draft under which all 18- to 26-year-olds would serve in the military or perform two years of national service as determined by the president. Rangel has been advocating a draft for several years, but he argued yesterday that the bill was too important for the suspension calendar, “which is reserved for non-controversial items,” he said in a statement.[SNIP]
Rangel accused Republicans of using his bill to assuage fears that President Bush had plans to reinstate the draft, stating, “The Republican leadership decision to place the draft legislation on the suspension Calendar is a political maneuver to kill rumors of the President’s intention to reinstate the draft after the November election.”
But, but, but…it was you and your Democrat colleagues who proposed and sponsored this bill, Mr. Rangel. How could it be *the president’s* intention to reinstate the draft?
Of course, it isn’t the president’s intention to do so. Mr. Rangel is merely taking advantage of the fact that rumors about an impending draft bill are being sent out to the liberal/leftist faithful without the names of the bill’s authors being mentioned, including his.
Is this not the dirtiest fraud ever perpetrated?
“It should be subject to hearings and to expert testimony. The administration should come and tell us about our manpower needs, about recruitment and retention, about the extent to which out troops are overextended. And they should give us their views about shared sacrifice. If they did all of those things in a serious way, they would have to admit that my bill is an option.”
As if Mr. Rangel cared a whit about our military’s manpower needs. What he actually cares about is hurting the president’s reelection chances and he would take the chance of harming the effectiveness of the most competent military force in the world to do so—in wartime, no less. Making it seem as though the draft bill is a Republican proposal is just the latest method. Mr. Rangel knows that most of the Democrat voting public do not know that the draft bill is solely a Democrat creation. And the ones that *do* know aren’t spilling the beans about that particular open secret.
Democrats said Republican leaders gave them no notice that the Rangel bill was headed to the floor.
Of course they didn’t. Republicans who value the quality of our military want this bill killed. Getting it suspended *before* the election is the easiest way to get this done.
Your bill is going down, Mr. Rangel. And I will do my best to expose the bill as a creation of yours and other Democrats.
UPDATE: The draft bill is killed massacred in the House, 402-2.
UPDATE: Reader Meep was curious as to the identity of the two who voted for the bill. They are: Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) [fixed 8/20/2007] never mind and Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA).
During my research, I discovered that, back in June, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) had her name removed from the list of co-sponsors for the bill.
