Anti-war activists are excited that nearly 90 House Democrats (and Ron Paul) are writing to President Bush to inform him that they will no longer support the war. Actually, that’s an exaggeration. FOUR House Democrats have written to the president to tell him they will no longer support the war. An additional 80 have written to tell him that they still don’t support it. This is an exciting development for the team at TPM Election Central, which explains the significance:
But in May, 140 Democrats voted not to fund the Iraq mission in the absence of a certain date for withdrawal. Of the 87 signers of the letter, all but 4 voted against funding in May. So what this letter really says is that 83 Democrats who voted against funding last year are promising not to change their minds on it; and an additional 4 Democrats have joined them. How did House leaders ‘reckon’ with the 140 no votes last May? They combined the 86 yes votes with 194 more from House Republicans — to produce a majority of 280-142. This suggests that the FY08 Iraq supplemental legislation is unlikely to pass by more than a margin of 276-146. That’s not a lot of progress for the anti-war crowd in the last 5 months. Hat Tip: Dan Riehl
