Mullings An American Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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Democrats' Quagmire on Iraq

Friday March 9, 2007

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Dear Mr. Mullings

It is becoming increasingly clear that the Yellow Brick Road down which Congressional Democrats danced on January 4, 2007 has turned into - dare we say it? - a quagmire on the issue of Iraq.

After essentially proclaiming a mandate to get US troops out of Iraq at the earliest possible moment, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has found out what Newt could have told her from his Speakertorial experience:

Being in the minority is easy. All you have to do is act like a two-year-old and say, "No!" to everything the majority proposes knowing full well that the majority, like the two-year-old's mother, is going to get its way no matter what.
Being in the majority means you have to actually cobble together enough votes on enough issues to make public policy.

That's if the majority is united. Iraq, on which the majority is fractured, the problems of leadership compound not just geometrically, but exponentially.

Let's go to the websites. First to ABC News where reporter Jake Tapper led his piece headlined: House Dems Ready for Showdown on Iraq:

The days of symbolic, nonbinding resolutions behind them, Democratic leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives [Thursday] morning dug in their heels and set the stage for an aggressive debate over the future of the war in Iraq.

Which was lyrically correct, but factually thin.

The Boston Globe (which, remember, is no right-wing mouthpiece inasmuch as it is owned by the New York Times company) had this as the second graf of Rick Klein's piece:

[House] Democratic leaders now concede that they do not have enough votes to use their control over federal spending to force President Bush to begin withdrawing troops.

And then insider's tip-sheet, The White House Bulletin reported on a counter-introduction yesterday morning by the Far Left Democrats:

Pelosi's move appears not to have appeased the members of the Progressive Caucus, a group of 70+ House Democrats that opposes the continuation of the war [which, Thursday] morning unveiled legislation to remove all US troops from Iraq by December 31st of this year.

Not all of those 70-75 Far Left Wingers will vote against their new Speaker, but a lot will. And so will many of the freshman Dems who were elected in at least marginally Republican districts last November.

CNN agrees:

More conservative [Democrats] from states that have supported Bush worry that putting conditions on military funds could tie the hands of U.S. commanders on the ground. The leadership proposal may not satisfy lawmakers who want an immediate withdrawal.

None of which is lost on Democratic political operatives as US News & World Report pointed out:

One Democratic insider (and former Bill Clinton advisor) said if the Get Out Of Iraq Caucus doesn't cool its jets � There could be a real long-term split in the party on this, and that would be bad for the Democrats who need to show they can govern and that they are not weak on national security.

In the words of that acclaimed observer of the American condition, Scooby Doo: "Ruh Row."

As the AP's David Espo, one of the most respected reporters in Washington, wrote:

[W]ithout a unified party, the [House] Democratic leadership faced the possibility of a highly embarrassing defeat when the spending legislation reaches a vote.

This quagmire will also splash wet peat on the Democratic candidates for President who have to woo the anti-Iraq left during the primaries without doing permanent damage among the rest of the country which remains center-right.

Can't wait until Hillary Rodham Clinton-Rodham shows up in the next New Hampshire living room and has to answer the question:

How would you vote on the Get Out Of Iraq Caucus legislation?

Haul on your boots, Madam Speaker, you're in a quagmire of your own making.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Links to ALL of the articles mentioned above, plus a really silly Mullfoto and a Catchy Caption of the Day.

ALL THAT PLUS - The latest edition of Dear Mr. Mullings!

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