Well, They Sort of Caved

Unlike I believed last night, the reworked Lieberman-Kyl amendment took out the worst part of the sabre-rattling language against Iraq, so it's not quite the declaration of war against Iran that it might've been. It's still belligerent, though. ThinkProgress has the marked up bill so you can see for yourself. The toned-down bill garnered 76 affirmative votes, including Harry Reid and Hillary. Jim Webb, who spoke so eloquently against it on Tuesday, still voted no, as did presidential hopefuls Chris Dodd and Joe Biden. Obama, interestingly enough, Barack Obama wasn't present on the Senate floor, so he didn't have to weigh in one way or another. Two no votes that surprised me belonged to Republicans Chuck Hagel and Richard Lugar. They both have spoken out against an extended occupation in Iraq, but after the recent drama of John Warner's principled statement against the Prez's misguided policies followed by his complete unwavering support for such policies, it's hard to remember that Republicans can actually follow their convictions.

As to the amendment itself, I suspect it'll go on the back burner, ready to be pulled out as soon as we need an excuse to do more than merely rattle sabres on the issue. It's part of the groundwork being set for expanding the War on Terror into another country that didn't attack us on September 11.