The big cave

The "Neville Chamberlain Moment"

Yesterday, majority Democratic leaders caved; they lay down, rolled over in front of Bush, and played dead. Then sat up and told everyone in earshot that they had made 'great progress.'

Democrats gave up their demand for troop-withdrawal deadlines in an Iraq war spending package yesterday, abandoning their top goal of bringing U.S. troops home and handing President Bush a victory in a debate that has roiled Congress for months.

Bush, who has already vetoed one spending bill with a troop timeline, had threatened to do the same with the next version if it came with such a condition. Democratic leaders had moved ahead anyway, under heavy pressure from liberals who believe that the party won control of Congress in November on the strength of antiwar sentiment. But in the end, Democrats said they did not have enough votes to override a presidential veto and could not delay troop funding.

Um... excuse me oh great and powerful Washington Post... but why? Why couldn't they delay troop funding?

Senator Feingold (D-WI) seems to believe that Bush has plenty of money to run his war through the end of the summer, and that the only way to force him to negotiate is to force him to veto the same bill, over and over again until he realizes that you are serious. Feingold also says - and he was a Rhodes scholar, very bright man - that since Congress holds the purse strings for this war, the only real way to end it is to 'just say no' when Bush asks for more war cash.

Reid and Pelosi: you could have sent your pathetic little benchmarks back 2, 3, maybe even 4 more times. Your original cave (outright betrayal to those who gave you this majority) came when the bill was still in the House. Madam Pelosi 'discouraged' (read snuffed) a vote on the Lee Amendment, which would have redeployed our troops by the end of 2007, and restricted use of these war funds to attack Iran.

This was nothing more than insisting on constitutional and congressional oversight where a declaration of war is concerned. Congress is supposed to declare a war, not the president. The president is supposed go to Congress and officially ask permission when he wants to start a war. Obviously, this president has other plans. The Lee Amendment would have demanded that this basic role of Congress be respected in the case of Iran -- in exchange for the cash.

You call this hardball? You caved immediately.

Reid - you were once a professional boxer? Seriously? No wonder we've never heard of you. Was your modus operandi to walk out into the ring... and immediately lie down on the floor and concede defeat?

I've been comparing you to Neville Chamberlain for some time now, so I wasn't exactly floored when I heard Keith Olbermann use the same likeness, when describing the immensity of this cowardly betrayal. The shoe fits. If only we had a Winston Churchill waiting in the wings.

We need a strong third party, and we need one immediately.