Will Voinovich do the right thing?

The pressure is on Voinovich

Last week, MoveOn.org encouraged Ohioans to bombard Sen. George Voinovich's office with phone calls to make sure he got the message that they want him to protest President Bush's planned surge of 21,500 troops in Iraq. Voinovich's office would not say how many calls it got.

But MoveOn is not done. After running commercials in select states (but not Ohio) and on CNN criticizing most Republican senators for blocking a vote on an anti-surge resolution, MoveOn wants to ramp up the pressure. Tomorrow, MoveOn and groups including ProgressOhio will announce a new bombardment campaign -- this one involving e-mail to Voinovich -- and an ad to run in Ohio.

Voinovich spokesman Chris Paulitz says the Ohio Republican leans toward supporting the resolution by Republican John Warner and Democrat Carl Levin -- if it ever gets to the floor. The nonbinding resolution would state disagreement with Bush's surge plan but also support the idea that a self-governing, stable Iraq is in America's best interest.

Some Republicans want other resolutions more friendly to Bush. With a standoff, none of the resolutions can get to the Senate floor. Even Voinovich, with his inclination to support the Warner resolution, last week cast a procedural vote that helped prevent it from getting to the floor in isolation of other, alternative resolutions.

Why attack him now, if he's leaning toward the position that MoveOn wants?

"That's a waffle," ProgressOhio's Brian Rothenberg said, citing Voinovich's vote last week that prevented the Warner measure alone from getting to the Senate floor. "It's one thing to say you support something and another to not allow it to come up."

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Let's hope Senator Voinovich does the right thing and suppports our president and the "surge" in Iraq.

It is sort of alarming that he is saying one thing , then doing another. I am sure this is a tough decision for him, but as long as he has served, he should know better than to undermine the President in a time of war.

Should Voinovich vote for any resolution the undermine the presidents authority or the troop surge, he can forget ever getting my vote again.

He can be sure, I will support and campaign for anybody that challenges him in the primary.

King