Remember who's using you, military

I got home late from a Christmas party last night, and indulged in one (more) glass of wine while scanning the evening headlines. When I read about how GOP Senators were planning to filibuster a military spending bill, openly admitting that their goal was to disrupt a health care reform vote, I just assumed I was reading it wrong. So I read the article again - nope, no misunderstanding. Just disgust. (Luckily, they failed.)

"Most of us are going to support the Department of Defense appropriations bill when the time is right, but I think it is very important to have the opportunity to talk about the health care bill,” said Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas.

Asked if he would vote for the defense bill, which Republicans routinely support, Senator Sam Brownback Republican of Kansas, replied bluntly: “No. I don’t want health care.”

The idea was that, if the Republicans had thrown up a roadblock to a routine military appropriations bill, the Senate would have had less time to debate and vote on a health care reform bill before the session ends for the holidays. So, in other words, all but three Republican members of the Senate voted to hold up funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in a cynical attempt to screw the president.

How full of shit is this? Sen. Russ Feingold, who reflexively votes against any funding for anything defense-related, voted to end the filibuster (even though he'll probably vote against the final version of the funding bill later this weekend).

Money for military operations [was] due to run out Friday under a stop-gap bill and the Senate needs to either complete the bill or pass another extension while the spending bill is completed.

The Pentagon measure also includes a two-month extension of unemployment benefits and health insurance for out-of-work Americans as well as temporary renewals of several expiring federal programs and laws.

Democrats chided Republicans for forcing the procedural vote on a measure they would normally support, saying it was a flawed strategy to slow down Pentagon money in their anger over health care.

“There is no more important bill for the safety of our troops,” said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat. “I think they picked the wrong bill.”

Question: if the Democrats had pulled this at any point during the Bush Administration, how loudly would the entire population of the Fox News Network be screaming? How many years would this be brought up to demonstrate that Democrats are anti-military?