Slow progress is still progress

It looks like Liberals are accepting the pragmatism that they will need to move ahead with pulling the troops out of Iraq. The Democrats, namely Nancy Pelosi, have managed to swing some more votes to their Emergency Funding Bill in the House. I am still not convinced that the House measure is going to do much in the way of actually bringing troops home. It leaves major decisions in the hands of the President as far as determining whether the Benchmarks are met. In a government designed to be slow moving, this process could be prolonged well past the 22 months that Bush has left in office, and long enough to leave the mess to the next president. Besides that, Bush has guaranteed a veto if the bill makes it through Congress. The White House and the Democratically controlled congress are both under intense pressure to get a spending bill through, and unfortunately, it is our troops that hang in the balance. For an excellent commentary on the politics of this fight, click here. Basically, we are quickly approaching a situation where one side or the other will have to back down. And in this intensely charged politically charged debate, there is no telling who has the most guts. The consequence for inaction is a lack of funding for the troops already on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, and neither side wants to be stuck with the political fault for this. This debate and the resulting consequences are sure to have an enormous impact on the ’08 election.