God Help Us

The New York Times reported just minutes ago on the latest Iraq War disaster to emanate from the Reid/Pelosi Congress. The architect of the Democratic Revolution of 2006:

“I view this as the beginning of the end of the president’s policy on Iraq,” said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.

How elegantly revolting.

Reid announced this evening that the Democratic caucus has decided to remove the withdrawal mandate from the emergency war spending bill that Bush demanded back in February, that they initially delivered with withdrawal timetables. The new one takes the teeth out of the whole enterprise and gives the president the blank check he’s thrown a perfect tantrum to get. Don’t feed me any gibberish about the provisions for getting tough on the Maliki government – as a powerless farce, it is quite impervious to pressure from the Senate Majority Leader’s office. And the kicker? Nancy Pelosi says she will not vote for it. Well, it’s very admirable, Madame Speaker, that you’re willing to give the appearance of deep fissures in the Democratic bloc in order to stand on principle, but anyone can see that this nonsense would never have made it through committee without your calculated acquiescence.

The president hands the Congress one veto – one veto on a measure they were sent to Congress for the virtually expressed purpose of enacting – and they’re done? John Edwards and Bill Richardson have consistently demanded that congressional Democrats send the same bill back to the White House as many times as it takes. What is it about the halls of the Capitol that makes conniving scoundrels out of good people who have been given an unambiguous mandate?

I have a secret for my (supposed) Democratic representatives in Washington: Fully 65% percent of the country is demanding the showdown that you are unwilling to provide. We are demanding it now.

Wonder why Democrats are seen as the party of weak-willed opportunists? I’ve got an answer for that too:

The measure would also force the White House and Congressional Republicans to accept significant new spending. Democrats say there is about $17 billion beyond the president’s initial request, with about $9 billion devoted to extra spending on military programs and health care, veterans’ health care and military base realignment. The remaining $8 billion goes to agriculture programs, additional Gulf Coast recovery efforts, children’s health care and other Democratic priorities. The minimum-wage increase will represent a domestic victory for Democrats.

I’m no naïf. I understand that federal money is the grease that keeps the Washington machine churning out its fatuous merchandise. But in the aftermath of the political hay about pork-barrel spending that won the White House so much unnecessary support the last time we danced around this mulberry bush, really, you must be joking.

“We don’t have a veto-proof Congress,” Mr. Reid said. “But no one can say with any degree of veracity that we haven’t made great progress, and this bill is further proof of that.”

Come on now. I mean, come on. No one can say with any degree of veracity that the progress Petraeus has made is sufficient to entertain the notion that the Iraq project might be worth sticking around for. And in any case, no Democrat can say it with any degree of credibility.

Enough already. What are you all afraid of?