Plan Two

The Democrats' actions don’t match their rhetoric? I know, I know, big freakin' surprise! I can hear the peanut gallery already… They’re politicians, for crap’s sake! What was I expecting? Leadership? Aw, come on, be reasonable — these are politicians we’re talking about!

For all their “deeply felt", “moral” rhetoric during the last election campaign about the need to end the war in Iraq, and for all their self-congratulating talk about the “mandate” the voters handed them, the Democrats have just shown us how shallow their actual commitment to the cause really is. In four months the Democratic leadership has made the transition from in-your-face anti-war agitation to a kind of political “guerrilla war”. They don’t have the votes — or the Constitutional authority — to force an actual end to the war. So they now have the objective of preventing President Bush — the Commander-In-Chief duly elected by a majority of the American people — from prosecuting the Iraq war as he decides. From The Politico:

Top House Democrats, working in concert with anti-war groups, have decided against using congressional power to force a quick end to U.S. involvement in Iraq, and instead will pursue a slow-bleed strategy designed to gradually limit the administration’s options.

Led by Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., and supported by several well-funded anti-war groups, the coalition’s goal is to limit or sharply reduce the number of U.S. troops available for the Iraq conflict, rather than to openly cut off funding for the war itself.

The legislative strategy will be supplemented by a multimillion-dollar TV ad campaign designed to pressure vulnerable GOP incumbents into breaking with President Bush and forcing the administration to admit that the war is politically unsustainable.

As described by participants, the goal is crafted to circumvent the biggest political vulnerability of the anti-war movement — the accusation that it is willing to abandon troops in the field. That fear is why many Democrats have remained timid in challenging Bush, even as public support for the president and his Iraq policies have plunged.

Translation: the Democrats have figured out that their bring-the-troops-home-right-now position is not the position of the majority of the American people (and possibly not even the majority of the lefties — barking moonbat rhetoric notwithstanding). So they can’t take on the issue directly, as they would lose. Rather than accept this outcome — which is after all just that pesky “will of the people” thing, not the view of the “elites” — they will instead try to hobble President Bush with their version of the legendary Chinese torture: death by a thousand cuts. Financial cuts, in this case.

Their political courage in office doesn’t even come close to matching their rhetorical courage while running.

What disturbs me the most, though, isn’t this specific tactic; I’ve come to expect such bullshit from this crowd. No, what disturbs me the most is that my fellow Americans keep re-electing these bozos, despite their repeated failure to live up to even their own side’s expectations! So far as I can discern, there is simply zero accountability amongst our elected representatives.

Sort of like the Post Office.

Now there’s a scary thought for you…