In the Battle Over the War, Pelosi Wins (E.J. Dionne for Truthdig)

[marmar]

In the Battle Over the War, Pelosi Wins


Posted on Mar 27, 2007
By E.J. Dionne

WASHINGTON—Within three weeks, the United States could face a constitutional crisis over President Bush’s war policy in Iraq. The president and his allies seem to want this fight. Yet insisting upon a confrontation will be another mistake in a long line of bad judgments about a conflict that grows more unpopular by the day.

Last week’s narrow House vote imposing an August 2008 deadline for the withdrawal of American troops was hugely significant, even if the bill stands no chance of passing the Senate this week in its current form. The vote was a test of the resolve of the new House Democratic leadership and its ability to pull together an ideologically diverse membership behind a plan pointing the U.S. out of Iraq.

To understand the importance of the vote, one need only consider what would have been said had it gone the other way: A defeat would have signaled House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s powerlessness to create a governing majority from a fragmented Democratic membership. In a do-or-die vote, Pelosi lived to fight another day by creating a consensus in favor of withdrawal that included some of her party’s most liberal and most conservative members.

The vote is only the first of what will be many difficult roll calls potentially pitting Congress against the president on the conduct of war policy. It confirmed that power in Washington has indeed shifted. Bush and his Republican congressional allies had hoped Democrats would splinter and open the way for a pro-Bush resolution of the Iraq issue. Instead, anti-war Democrats, including Web-based groups such as MoveOn.org, discovered a common interest with their moderate colleagues.
....snip....

Bush, of course, might still win this Senate vote and a reprieve for his war policy. But the president’s refusal to acknowledge that the country has fundamentally changed its mind on the war makes it impossible for him to work with Congress on a sensible approach to a withdrawal that will happen some day—with or without a constitutional showdown. .......

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070327_in_the_battle_over_the_war_pelosi_wins/

[Rydz777]

1. God analysis and

Peter Beinart in Time Mag this week has another. Three quotes:
- "In reality, Democrats didn't suffer in the 1970's from opposing Vietnam. And they are even less likely to pay a political price for trying to end the war in Iraq."
- "The real danger for Democrats in the Iraq debate isn't that they'll oppose the war too aggressively; it's that they won't oppose it aggressively enough."
- "...if the public doesn't believe you stand for anything, then you had better show them that you do.... And the solution is to end the war in Iraq."

[Rydz777]

2. "God" should be "Good." eom