DEMOCRATS PUT HEAT ON PELOSI OVER GENOCIDE BILL
By Richard Simon
Los Angeles Times, CA
Oct 18 2007
As support wanes for the measure on Turkish killing of Armenians,
the House speaker sounds uncertain of its fate.
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came under increasing
pressure from members of her Democratic caucus Wednesday not to bring
a resolution officially recognizing the Armenian genocide to a vote.
The San Francisco Democrat, who had promised to bring the long-debated
resolution to the floor, sounded uncertain about its fate as support
waned in the face of angry denunciations from Turkey and fears that
the symbolic resolution could disrupt U.S. military operations in
Iraq and Afghanistan. "Whether it will come up or not, or what the
action will be, remains to be seen," she said.
The Bush administration and the Turkish government — aided by
high-paid, well-connected lobbyists — have ratcheted up their campaign
against the measure, which calls on the president to "accurately
characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000
Armenians as genocide."
Now top Democrats are leaning on Pelosi. Rep. John P. Murtha of
Pennsylvania, an influential Democrat on military matters, has
urged Pelosi not to bring the resolution to the floor. He said party
leaders miscalculated support for the measure. If the resolution is
brought to a vote now, he said, it would fail, with 55 to 60 Democrats
opposing it.
Murtha, a close Pelosi ally who is a leader in efforts to withdraw
U.S. forces from Iraq, said he was worried the resolution would
lead Turkey to deny use of its land, ports and airspace to supply
American troops.
Separately, a bipartisan group of 49 House members, including such
committee chairmen as Reps. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) of the Armed Services
Committee and Silverstre Reyes (D-Texas) of the Intelligence Committee,
sent Pelosi a letter urging her not to schedule a vote.
The resolution’s supporters weren’t ready to concede defeat.
They want to have a vote when they are confident they will prevail.
Pelosi has left it to the sponsors, led by Rep. Adam B. Schiff
(D-Burbank), to gauge support. "We want to win," Schiff said. "We
always knew this was going to be tough."
Bryan Ardouny, executive director of the Armenian Assembly of America,
said, "At the end of the day, we’re confident that there will be a
bipartisan majority" supporting the measure.
At least a dozen lawmakers have withdrawn as cosponsors of the
resolution since it was approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee
last week, leaving the list of cosponsors short of a majority of the
House. Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), who pulled his name as a sponsor
Wednesday, said, "We need to hold the perpetrators of genocide
accountable, but this is not the right time for this resolution."
Murtha said that a number of lawmakers who signed on as cosponsors
"didn’t have a clue what it was all about."
Bush also renewed his request to Pelosi to not bring the resolution
to a vote.
"Congress has more important work to do than antagonizing a democratic
ally in the Muslim world, especially one that’s providing vital
support for our military every day," he said.
But the resolution’s supporters took Bush to task for worrying about
offending Turkey but being willing to anger China by attending a
congressional ceremony for the Dalai Lama on Wednesday.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Reps. George Radanovich
(R-Mariposa), Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), Ed Royce (R-Fullerton)
and Schiff, noted the difference.
"Congress today stood up for what is right and would not be intimidated
by threats from another nation," they said in a statement. "We must
similarly be willing to speak out on the Armenian genocide. If we as
a nation are to be a moral leader around the world we must have the
courage to recognize genocide whenever and wherever it occurs."
The Turkish government disputes that a genocide took place, contending
that during and after World War I, Armenians as well as Turks were
casualties of the war, famine and disease. But historical evidence
and authoritative research support the use of the term.
The symbolic resolution has been long sought by the Armenian American
community.
It has been opposed by the Bush administration, which, like the
Clinton administration before it, fears it would lead Turkey to curb
its military cooperation with the United States.
Murtha, who chairs the House defense appropriations subcommittee,
said that he was recently approached by more than two dozen fellow
Democrats, and that "they’re very agitated about this coming to the
floor right now."
"Sometimes, your heart has to give in to your head," said
Rep. Stephen J. Cohen (D-Tenn.), who joined Murtha at a Capitol
news conference. Cohen said that when he was in Turkey recently,
"this issue was the first thing they talked about."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress