Centerfield

All good points. The GOP lost power in large part due their continual overreaches. I predicted that would happen right after the 2004 elections. It looks like the Dems are about to make the same mistake with this, with the consequences being even more severe.

The difference that while the GOP overreached, the Dems,according to the Pew polls are not reaching far enough. Americans want the Democrats to stop George from doing more of the same. Washington Post and ABC Newspoll earlier this month said that 66 per cent of respondents think the war with Iraq was not worth fighting. That's a huge number, much larger than what the GOP had to work with when it tried cutting social programs in the 90's.

Furthermore I think its a mistake to discount "corrupt republican" fatigue and other factors like the 9 trillion debt, the total disastrous inability to run big government, the politicization of the Justice dept., the now constant drumbeat of scandal (today the Tillman/Lynch episode front and center, tomorrow Doolittle?) and a Lot of etc.s Just think, last week FEMA was still UNABLE TO FILE A NATURAL DISASTER PLAN. Uh, maybe they can dust off the successful ones from the Clinton FEMA. Can we mention 3+ billion in bad FEMA contracts? and counting? I don't think that the electorate is done with the GOP. The neocons have really dragged it down. The only GOP causes left are abortion and gays. The GOP has major structural problems to deal with and they won't go away until there's a clean sweep of the current power structure.
That's about it.

Splendid lathering Marcus. Don't forget to rinse and repeat.

I note how you describe those poll results. I think it's questionable (and risky for congressional democrats) to connect the "shouldn't have started war" bone to the "withdraw asap" bone.

I am totally unshocked that, with the benefit of hindsight, 2 out of 3 folks feels the invasion was a mistake. But hopefully they're smart enough to know that you can't uncrack an egg. If 2 out of 3 Americans agree it was a mistake to drop the egg on the floor, that doesn't mean that 2 out of 3 Americans thinks its OK to walk away and leave the mess behind.

Time will tell. I feel pretty confident that if Congress doesn't find a way to work with Bush to fund the troops, the people will blame the democrats in charge. Folks are unlikely to look kindly on the use of the troops as pawns caught in the crossfire between Bush and congress. Bush is the C in C, period. That's the way it is.

We'll see. I expect the democrats to back down and provide the funding with no more than a vague non-binding blandishment included in the wording. And we all know how much force comes with "non-binding."

comment thread is hysterical

There will be more attacks and more bluster from our adversaries. Once things get serious again, the Democrats will say and do what? Claim the attacks are Bush-related? Notice attacks on Chinese oil workers in Africa? Note probable French victor claiming AQ in North Africa is tied with Iran as Europe's greatest threat. Note POlls in Europe backing action against Iran (52%) as they discuss selected enrichment offers to Iran. Note Syria positioning missiles near Israeli border. Note attack by Hamas on Israel. Note..note..note..etc.

TDS made fun of Reid. McCain held his own. SF alerts us to reality check.

At some point before 2008, conflict will start again and the American people might not find much solace in the five year chant of "Bush is the cause of everything bad". As I said before, Bush, Democrats and extremists have created a perfect storm. It will pass. The Republicans gave Clinton a hard time for five plus years, yet he got some things done. Now the Democrats chase politics. This cycle of crap must end. The question is; will our adversaries be better armed and situated when the rain lets up? Should Dems win in 2008 will the wmd genie be out of the box by 2012? The steps we take now may destroy a Party in the future aftermath of terror and extremism. I am not sure what we have learned from 9/11 or even from reading the daily reports from our adversaries.