Ramstad is among few in GOP to vote against Bush’s troop plan

02/18/2007

By Brady Averill,
Star Tribune
Last update: February 16, 2007


WASHINGTON - Minnesota lawmakers Friday voted mostly along party lines on the U.S. House resolution on Iraq, but Republican Rep. Jim Ramstad was among 17 Republicans who joined with Democrats to express disapproval of President Bush's plan to increase troops.

"Our brave troops have done an absolutely heroic job of liberating the people of Iraq," Ramstad said. "Now, our troops should get back to the original mission of training Iraqi security forces so they can secure their own country and turn it over to the Iraqi people."

Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., a Marine veteran who spoke against the resolution several times, called it the "first step on the path to de-funding our troops, withdrawing them, and allowing Iraq to become a chaotic, ungoverned space that will act as a training ground for Al-Qaida."

Speaking on the House floor early Friday morning, Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., encouraged his colleagues to vote for the resolution.

"I have given the president the benefit of the doubt on more than one occasion, but his plan to send in more troops doesn't pass the test of common sense," he said. "If a short-term surge was going to deliver victory and democracy in Iraq, we would have already done it."

Today, the Senate has scheduled a rare Saturday vote to begin debating the House resolution. Minnesota Sens. Norm Coleman, a Republican, and Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, who were in Minnesota Friday, were expected to return to Washington for the vote.

Coleman's office didn't indicate how he would vote. The senator opposes sending more troops to Baghdad, but approves of sending more troops to Anbar Province, where he said the insurgents are seizing ground. Klobuchar said she would vote in favor of the House language.