Washington DC (November 17, 2005) – In an unprecedented parliamentary maneuver, Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada), the Democratic Senate Minority leader, has introduced an emergency bill late last night to “eradicate” once forever the voting records of all Senate Democrats on the 1998 and 2002 Iraq legislations. If successful, this shrewd move would “free” the Democrats from the “flip-flop stigma” on the Iraq war that kept dogging them for the last two years, Senator Reid said. On the flip side, the Democrats are currently in opposition of the Iraq war, but on the flop side, they voted overwhelmingly for the war in the past. In 1998, the Senate Democrats voted unanimously for the Iraq Liberation Act, HR 4655, signed into law by President Clinton on October 31, 1998. "It should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime," this law said. In 2002, many Senate Democrats joined the Republicans in a 77-23 vote for the Iraq War Resolution of October 10, 2002, which under Section 3, Paragraph (a) authorized President Bush to “use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to (1) defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq; and (2) enforce all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq.” 29 Democratic Senators, including key senators like Biden, Hillary Clinton, Daschle, Edwards, Harkin, Kerry, Reid, Rockefeller, Schumer, voted for this resolution.Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) explained that the newly introduced bill would “mandate the total eradication” of all Senate records related to the 1988 Iraq Liberation Act and the 2002 Iraq War Resolution discussed above. Anyone who mentions in written or verbal form the Democratic support for these legislations will face “ federal felony charge” and “prison terms up to 20 years.”
