[lbo-talk] The Draft Is Back

Seth Ackerman sethia at speakeasy.net
Tue Jun 1 13:24:34 PDT 2004


From: "Dennis Perrin" <dperrin at comcast.net>


> > These bills were sponsored by Democrats (Rangel and Hollings) more than
a
> > year ago to embarrass the president. They're not going to become law.
>
> What makes you say that?

Like I said, the House bill was introduced by Charlie Rangel last year before the war as a way of bashing Bush. The Republicans denounced him for grandstanding and pulling a political stunt and they wheeled out some generals to reassure everyone there won't be a draft. In the House, you can't even get a floor vote without Hastert's (and therefore Karl Rove's) permission -- I really doubt they'll be voting on Rangel's anti-Bush bill, and if they did it would obviously lose.

I'm not saying there will never ever be a draft. But this is far from evidence that one is coming. They might need to call a draft for selected specialties - technicians with skills in short supply. That would be bad for Bush -- it would hit the middle-income systems analyst swing-voter in suburban Denver -- but I don't think they'll be calling up hundreds of thousands of people.

Seth



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