Rangel’s own wag-the-dog tactic:
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) likely will introduce his controversial legislation to reinstate the draft again this year, but he will wait until after the economic stimulus package is passed.
Asked if he plans to introduce the legislation again in 2009, Rangel last week said, “Probably … yes. I don’t want to do anything this early to distract from the issue of the economic stimulus.”
Rangel’s military draft bill did create a distraction for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) soon after Democrats won control of Congress after the 2006 election.
In the wake of that historic victory, Pelosi said publicly that she did not support the draft and that the Democratic leadership would not back Rangel’s legislation. She also said Rangel’s legislation was not about reinstating the draft but was instead “a way to make a point” about social inequality.
Reintroducing the military draft bill, which would attract media attention, will be trickier for Rangel in 2009 than it was a couple years ago because the Ways and Means Committee chairman is now under investigation by the House ethics committee.
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/rangel-to-reintroduce-military-draft-measure-2009-01-14.html
Hat tip to Jonn Lilyea at This Ain’t Hell, for this bit of history:
Just for a timeline of the recent history of the draft, the last year of the draft was 1972 (I was 17) and it was ended by REPUBLICAN Richard Nixon. Draft registration was reinstituted in 1979 by DEMOCRAT Jimmy Carter in response to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan because Carter had made life in the volunteer Army so unattractive, there was no way he could have attracted enough manpower to an entirely volunteer force to fight off a foreign threat.
Rangel tried to reanimate the draft to anger more Americans about the war against terror in 2003. Democrats then waived the failed draft bill as a bloody shirt to scare voters to vote against President Bush.
http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=7057
This is so ironic. Wasn’t it supposed to be the EVIL GW that coerced enlistments with his demonic telepathic brain waves? And wasn’t it under the EVIL GW Bush administration that all those volunteers were forced against their will, to enlist and fight the nation’s wars?
The Dems are gonna have a tough time explaining this part of their ‘withdrawal’ plans.