Senate Hearing on Congressional War Cessation

On January 30th, the federal Senate held a public hearing entitled “Exercising Congress’ Constitutional Power to End a War.” When chair of the hearing, Russ Feingold (D-WI), spun the issue of Congress possibly voting to withdraw American troops, his use of the term “will” rather than the word “preference” was a textbook example of partisan rhetoric implying that fellow party members who vote more moderately than how he votes are weak-kneed and malleable. Although it might silly for Feingold to mock moderate Democrats despite knowing that the median vote gets the victory, it may very well be that Feingold is pushing far left to shift the policy preferences of fellow senators, as hinted at in his statement, “Things are moving in that direction,” referring to the evidenced shift from a Senate zeitgeist of extended deployment towards a sentiment of expedited withdrawal. Moderate Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) echoed the voice of moderation with his statement, “…To the president, he is not the sole decider.”