Amidst many missteps and revisions, there have been a few running themes to the Democratic ‘strategy’ on Iraq since the party took back Congress last fall. They’ve tried to cow the president into drawing down from Iraq while refusing to use their authority to do so–since that would leave them ‘on the hook’ for whatever happens next. And, they’ve tried to tell their base one thing and the American people another. It looks like both trends will continue tomorrow, when the House debates the ‘Responsible Redeployment from Iraq Act.’ The measure states:
What constitutes a ‘limited presence’ is up to the discretion of the White House. So if President Bush believes we should ‘draw down’ to 125,000 men, that’s what will happen. The bill also requires that by January 1, the president must transmit to Congress a ‘comprehensive’ plan for the future U.S. role in Iraq. The plan must have two major components:
It’s clear that Congressional Democrats want American troops out of Iraq–yesterday, if possible. But why then, do they refuse to consider legislation specifically do to that? Despite all the bluster and inflammatory rhetoric that will accompany it, the plain language of this bill still leaves Iraq in the president’s hands. As such, it doesn’t represent the ‘change of course’ that Democrats are promising. And given that they ultimately gave the president the Iraq funding bill he wanted, that shouldn’t be a surprise. But rest assured, that’s not how House Democratic leaders will pitch it to MoveOn and DailyKos. According to Speaker Pelosi, the measure would ‘begin the responsible redeployment of U.S. troops within 120 days and complete redeployment by April 1, 2008.’ While true on its face, there’s one major caveat: the president will define all the terms.
If Democrats are being truthful, they will acknowledge that this amounts to little more than a ‘sense of the Congress,’ designed to state (loudly) what the majority Democrats think about Iraq, without forcing any action. To the extent that we don’t know what the Democrats think, I suppose it’s instructive–but I already got the message. Republican Leader Boehner argues that this is a politically-motivated vote designed to undermine American troops in harm’s way and undercut Operation Phantom Thunder:
It’s all play acting and shadow theater, of course–but that’s been the case with much of what Democrats have done since winning Congress. As I’ve noted before, it’s earned them a 25% approval rating in the polls. Forget Iraq for a moment; the American people clearly want a course change in Congress.
