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Share ThisJun 12, 2007
The Express Times - Dent talks a lot, Holt takes action
When a group of lawmakers went to the House floor Wednesday evening to discuss the few cross-party agreements it had reached about the future conduct of the war in Iraq, only five members were willing to take part.
U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent was one of them.
"A constituent called just the other day who imports various food products from Syria because I have a large Middle-Eastern community in my district. And just some of the challenges -- they just want to go about life as they normally would," said Dent, R-Lehigh Valley. "I thought it was interesting. It kind of brings back home the point that people want to coexist peacefully."
Dent's appearance on the floor with members of the Center Aisle Caucus irked campaign operatives at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
The congressman had called for the Bush administration to negotiate a status-of-forces agreement with the Iraqi government of Nouri Kamal al-Maliki. That pact might produce a timeline for dismantling American bases, Dent said. Such a pact "would send a clear message both to the Iraqis and to other countries in the region that we do not intend to establish permanent bases in Iraq," Dent claimed.
If Dent had determined to break with the White House on Iraq, he had done so only with his rhetoric and not with his votes, asserted Carrie James, a spokeswoman for the House Democratic campaign.
"Congressman Dent has had several opportunities in Congress to vote for a new direction in Iraq and has chosen to consistently rubber stamp the president's failed policy. Lehigh Valley families have called for a change in direction in Iraq and Congressman Dent is all talk and no action," James said.
Dent did not support a recent appropriations bill that would have required a withdrawal. Instead Dent opposed the measure and then voted to uphold President Bush's veto.
The congressman now is co-sponsoring a bill, H.R. 2574, that would compel the Bush administration to implement the 79 recommendations of the Iraq Study Group led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind.
"When I first read this report back in December, when it was first released, I had some concerns too, like many people, about some of the recommendations, particularly the recommendation about directly engaging Iran," Dent said during Wednesday's floor debate.
"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a virulent anti-Semite. He has made such inflammatory comments. I think we all agree he is a menace," Dent explained.
Events now have outstripped officials' objections to the Baker-Hamilton report.
For instance, launching bilateral talks with the Iranian government is not so radioactive now as it was six months ago. Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, recently met with Iranian diplomats in Baghdad.
U.S. Rep. Rush Holt still is pushing for the United States to find a way to withdraw from what he considers an Iraqi civil war.
"There is a sectarian war that, however well-intentioned we may be, we are not able to control, and our staying there longer is not going to make us more able to control it," Holt, D-Hunterdon, said Friday.
"We can feel bad; we can feel guilty; we can feel obligated. We can feel humanitarian interest in bringing down the deaths. But we have not shown the ability to bring down the deaths and the injuries. It just reinforces my determination to get the combat troops out of there," Holt said.
If Holt is ready to get out already, Dent isn't yet ready to go that far.
