California Conservative

It’s time that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi figured out that they’re playing a losing hand on the Iraq funding bill. With Sens. Carl Levin, Chuck Schumer and Barack Obama saying that they won’t cut off funding for troops in the field, Reid must know that he’s lost this hand to President Bush and Gen. Petraeus. With a slew of southern and Midwestern freshmen moderates’ careers on the line, Nancy Pelosi must know that she can’t push the bill that the MoveCongress/Daily Kos people want.

After Wednesday’s meeting, the sides are still far apart, with Harry Reid still pretending that he’s holding the best cards:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said after the “polite” meeting that Democrats had spoken their minds to the president — “and I think he needs to hear more of conversations from people like us who don’t always tell him what he wants to hear.”

It’s true that President Bush hasn’t chosen his advisers well. The only way he could’ve gotten worse advice is if he’d taken the Democrats’ advice. When Jack Murtha says that we should redeploy our rapid response forces to Okinawa, it’s impossible to take them seriously. When John Murtha says that AQI will disappear the minute we leave, it’s impossible to take them seriously.

It looks like the White House isn’t just turning the other cheek:

“There are fundamental disagreements on efforts to legislate surrender dates,” White House spokesman Tony Fratto said after the meeting.

President Bush should resist the Democrats’ attempts to legislate surrender. He should address the nation, first addressing the nation on the history of al Qa’ida’s war with us. I’d especially focus on bin Laden’s statements that withdrawing from Somalia told him that America was a paper tiger.

“It has been our plan to pass legislation next week so the president can take it up at his earliest time, and hopefully give some hope to the American people that we understand that they want us to work together to wind down this war, bring our troops home safely,” Mrs. Pelosi, of California, said.

It’s time that Ms. Pelosi got an earful from the American people. It’s time that they told her that America isn’t a collection of pacifists and defeatists. Only a portion of the country is like her. They’re the Nutroots wing of her party. It’s time that Ms. Pelosi learned that she’s playing a losing hand. If she pushes the current legislation, her southern moderates will either vote against her or they’ll be electoral toast in 2008.

Asked whether the meeting had changed any views, House Minority Leader John A. Boehner had just one word: “No. The real issue…is whether we’re going to agree to a surrender date, and that’s not going to happen,” Mr. Boehner, of Ohio, said.

The Republicans have substantially firmed up their ranks since the days of nonbinding resolutions. The Victory Caucus has alot to do with that. Rest assured that NZ Bear’s building a victory coalition turned heads inside the halls of power.

Technorati Tags: Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Carl Levin, Chuck Schumer, Barack Obama, John Murtha, Defeatocrats, President Bush, David Petraeus, Victory Caucus, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 19th, 2007 at 2:07 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Election 2008, Foreign Policy, Iraq, Military, Pelosi, Terrorism, W. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.