Harry Reid to GOP: You can run but you can't hide... [VIDEO]

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 9:47 AM on February 6, 2007.

The Democrats are feeling their oats on the Iraq issue, due in no small part to Feingold's relentless pursuit of a real stance, a real policy.

In this clip, hat tip to Bob Geiger, Harry Reid puts his foot down. Unofficial transcript below:

you can run but you can't hide. we are going to debate iraq

and they may have gotten all their folks over there to vote against motion to proceed, they may stop us temporarily from debating the escalation, but they are not going to stop us from debating iraq.

3,100 soldiers, sailors, and marines. they are dead, madam president. we don't know the exact number of how many have been wounded. 24,000, 25,000. we are not going to allow the situation in iraq to continue. it is wrong, madam president. there can be no military solution. the president's been told that.

i think i it speaks volumes when he -- i think it speaks volumes when he meets with the iraqi prime minister, who is elected, and the iraqi prime minister said, mr. president of the united states, get all american soldiers out of baghdad. that's what he said.

Joshua adds …

Chuck Hagel, the GOP's anti-war "maverick," voted to block the debate on Bush's escalation. That is, he voted to block debate on his own resolution.

And remember this, from Republican Senator Gordon Smith in December?

"I, for one, am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up by the same bombs day after day. That is absurd. It may even be criminal."

Yesterday, the Senator decided he had a bit more rope left in him for this possibly "criminal" war, and joined Hagel in voting against the debate [ht: Bart Acocella].

Principles. They're a beautiful thing.

Tagged as: iraq, democrats, reid

Evan Derkacz is an AlterNet editor. He writes and edits PEEK, the blog of blogs.