The politics of cut-and-run rears its ugly head in Congress as the Neo-Copperheads and their small band of White Flag Republicans seek to abandon our allies and give in to terrorism in Iraq by tying the hands of the Commander-in-Chief.

Senior House Democrats, seeking to placate members of their party from Republican-leaning districts, are pushing a plan that would place restrictions on President Bush's ability to wage the war in Iraq but would allow him to waive them if he publicly justifies his position.

Under the proposal, Bush would also have to set a date to begin troop withdrawals if the Iraqi government fails to meet benchmarks aimed at stabilizing the country that the president laid out in January.

The plan is an attempt to bridge the differences between anti-war Democrats, led by Rep. John P. Murtha (Pa.), who have wanted to devise standards of troop readiness strict enough to force Bush to delay some deployments and bring some troops home, and Democrats wary of seeming to place restrictions on the president's role as commander in chief.

The legislative jujitsu in the backrooms of Capitol Hill underscores the difficulties the Democrats face in confronting the issue that helped them regain control of Congress -- Iraq. Democrats passed a resolution in February opposing Bush's deployment of 21,500 additional troops to Iraq, but Murtha's proposal to go a step further by restricting deployment to troops deemed to be adequately trained and equipped elicited a fierce response from Republicans, while also dividing the Democratic caucus.

It must suck to be rooting for American troops to fail -- and to need to act to facilitate it -- to gain political advantage for your party.

And before anyone accuses me of questioning the patriotism of those members of Congress supporting this plan for failure, let me clarify matters for you -- YES, I AM!

Posted by: Greg at 11:41 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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