Hand it to the Democrats. While I suggested that they pull the Band-Aid, they are doing their best to avoid this simple reality: they cannot stop the war without de-funding it. Congressman Obey is reportedly deploying a strategy previewed here before — micro-funding:
This is definitely somewhat clever. In theory at least, it allows the Democrats to say that they have not ct off funding for the troops, and it kicks the can down the road until July–after the ‘surge’ in Iraq will have fully begun. (The administration says that the last of the added troops will arrive in June). I am eagerly looking for anyone who’ll bet that the Democrats will vote to ‘unfence’ the funds in the July vote. I’m offering VERY attractive odds. In July, the Democrats hope, they will have browbeaten enough Republicans into joining them to provide cover to defund the war. That’s why the Out of Iraq caucus is happy with this approach. It’s already getting nice reviews from the netroots. The problem with the plan is that some Democrats–particularly those in the Senate–are not eager to continue voting repeatedly on war funding. The Senate is apparently planning to provide a bill with benchmarks that the president will sign, while voting on the meaningless veto-bait put forth by Senators Clinton and Byrd as another effort at CYA. This approach would almost certainly unite the House GOP in opposition–or nearly so, anyway. While House Republicans were sounding quite receptive to a funding bill with benchmarks, they will probably oppose a partial-funding bill in near lockstep. It also puts the pressure on the White House to explain why such an approach fails to properly fund the troops. Mr. Obey is clearly anticipating such an argument; it’s why he’s talking about a $10 billion ‘cushion.’ Is this any way to fight a war? The clear and obvious answer is ‘yes, it is.’ It’s a great way to fight a war against a president–just a terrible way to fight against enemies on the ground.
