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October 26, 2004
Bipartisanship
"As President, I will work with President Uribe to keep the bipartisan spirit in Washington alive in support of Plan Colombia," reads Sen. John Kerry's October 15 statement on Colombia.
With that sentence, Sen. Kerry employed an adjective that Plan Colombia's proponents frequently invoke. A few examples just since June:
- "This policy reflects the continuing bipartisan support received from the Congress for our programs in Colombia." - Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger Noriega, testifying before the House Government Reform Committee, June 17, 2004 (PDF format).
- "Led by Speaker Dennis Hastert and enjoying bipartisan support, Congress continues to fund activities that are making a difference." - Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict Thomas O'Connell, in a Washington Times op-ed, July 1, 2004.
- "Our policy enjoys strong, durable bipartisan support because it responds not only the needs of a friend and ally, but also to the fundamental values and vital security needs of the United States." – Ambassador William Wood at Georgetown University, September 20, 2004.
It makes good political sense to sell Plan Colombia – which was proposed by the Democratic Clinton administration and supported by the Republican congressional leadership four-and-a-half years ago – as a bipartisan strategy. If majorities on both sides of the aisle see the current course in Colombia as the best possible one, then the policy must not be controversial; all those peace and human-rights people opposing it must be fringe characters way out of touch with the mainstream.
The vision of bipartisanship may be comforting for Plan Colombia's proponents. Unfortunately, it's wrong, and it has been wrong for some time. Plan Colombia hasn't enjoyed anything resembling bipartisan support since Bill Clinton left the White House. Today, most of the Democratic Party is not on board.
A look at votes in Congress makes clear a trend of steadily increasing skepticism about U.S. policy toward Colombia. While skeptics have yet to win a vote – the Republican majority remains tightly disciplined, in part due to Speaker Dennis Hastert's longstanding interest in Colombia, a country he has visited many times – the Democrats' growing opposition is measurable.
Votes in the House of Representatives are quite illustrative:
- March 29, 2000: During the debate on the initial Plan Colombia appropriation, Rep. David Obey (D-Wisconsin) introduced an amendment to strip out military assistance for Colombia and postpone it for a later, separate vote. The amendment lost by a 186-239 vote; a majority of Democrats (127-81, or 61%) voted for the Obey measure. (Plan Colombia was attached to the 2001 military construction appropriations bill; the vote on that much larger bill is not a useful measure of representatives' positions on Plan Colombia.)
- July 24, 2001: During debate on the 2002 foreign aid bill, Reps. Barbara Lee (D-California) and Jim Leach (R-Iowa) introduced an amendment to shift some funding from the Andean Counter-Drug Initiative to the Global AIDS Trust Fund. The amendment lost by a 188-240 vote; a majority of Democrats (172-35, or 83%) voted for it.
- July 24, 2001: During debate on the 2002 foreign aid bill, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts) and several other members introduced an amendment that would have cut $100 million from the Andean aid to pay for increased assistance for anti-tuberculosis programs. The amendment lost by a 179-240 vote; a majority of Democrats (156-50, or 76%) voted for it.
- May 23, 2002: During debate over a special appropriation for counter-terrorism, Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts) and Ike Skelton (D-Missouri) introduced an amendment that would have cut language broadening the mission of U.S. military assistance in Colombia, restricted at the time to counter-drug purposes, to include combat against illegal armed groups. The amendment lost by a 192-225 vote; a majority of Democrats (170-30, or 85%) voted for it.
- April 3, 2003: During debate on the Iraq war appropriation, Reps. McGovern, Skelton and Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut) introduced an amendment that would have cut U.S. military assistance in Colombia included in the bill. The amendment lost by a 209-216 vote; a strong majority of Democrats (190-10, or 95%) voted for it.
- July 23, 2003: During debate on the 2004 foreign aid bill, Reps. McGovern and Skelton that would have some cut military aid for Colombia and transferred it to HIV-AIDS programs. The amendment lost by a 195-226 vote; a strong majority of Democrats (182-17, or 91%) voted for it.
The Senate has not considered Colombia as often, and is more difficult to measure. During the 2000 debate on the first Plan Colombia appropriation, this body did indeed act in a bipartisan fashion, rejecting amendments by Democrat Paul Wellstone (11 to 89) and Republican Slade Gorton (19 to 79) seeking to cut military assistance.
Though the Senate hardly considered Colombia over the next few years, 2004 brought signs that bipartisan support for Plan Colombia has eroded. In July, Sen. Russell Feingold circulated a letter to President Uribe expressing several human rights concerns; while the letter gained the signatures of 23 Democratic senators (including Kerry and Edwards), not a single Republican would sign onto it, despite activists' strenuous efforts to make the letter a bipartisan document.
On June 23 of this year, the Senate had its first significant debate and vote on Colombia policy in some time. Sen. Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) introduced an amendment to the 2005 Defense Authorization bill seeking to roll back an increase in the number of U.S. military and contractor personnel allowed in Colombia. (A similar "troop cap" measure had been approved by the House of Representatives' Armed Services Committee – the first example of bipartisan support for a provision in opposition to the executive branch's efforts to carry out Plan Colombia.) The Byrd amendment lost by a 40-58 vote, a much better Senate showing than in 2000; a majority of Democratic senators (38-9, or 79%) voted for it.
The record of the last few years shows a string of sharply divided party-line votes, not a bipartisan consensus behind the current U.S. policy toward Colombia. "Bipartisanship" is not the appropriate term for a coalition between nearly all Republicans and a thin sliver from the Democratic minority. If one accepts that definition, then the "b-word" can be slapped onto just about any Republican initiative of the past few years that counted with a few maverick Democratic votes – the Medicare bill, the Bush tax cuts, even the war in Iraq.
Despite the wording of Sen. Kerry's statement and Bush administration officials' assurances, Plan Colombia does not enjoy bipartisan support. And saying so simply won't make it true.
Posted by isacson at October 26, 2004 12:48 AM
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