SOME WANT TO END THE WAR AND STOP ESCALATION-- AND SOME WANT TO PLAY POLITICAL GAMES AND SCORE POINTS

"Most Americans say they want Congress to find a way to stop the troop increase." Is that clear Senator Biden? Is that clear to you, Senator Levin? Reid? Durbin? Democratic House Majority Leader Hoyer? It doesn't say they want you to send Bush a public rebuke or play political games so you can blame Bush after the escalation fails and more Americans are dead and more Iraqis are dead and we're at war with Iran and Syria and more Muslims hate America forever. Nonbinding symbolic resolutions are for Old School pols. The American public-- especially Democratic voters-- want real action, like Kennedy, Dodd, Murtha and Woolsey (and others who pay attention and get it) are suggesting.


Suicidal Republicans aren't going to go along. Let them be swept up in the tide of history, especially the quivering cowards like Norm Coleman. Bush tried to rally public support and he failed-- spectacularly, like he's failed again and again in Iraq while many Democratic senators were content to sound grumpy and do nothing. This is serious, very serious. Time to stop playing politics. McCain may have just finished his shot at the presidency ("The poll also shows the potential saliency of the war in the 2008 presidential elections, especially for Senator John McCain of Arizona, a frontrunner for the Republican nomination. A plurality of self-defined moderates and independents, a key McCain constituency, said his advocacy of a troop escalation even larger than the one Bush has announced makes them less likely to support him if he runs for the White House.") Good; now build on that and forget the political games and end this escalation. Don't let Bush expand the war into Iran and bring our troops home and let the Iraqis deal with their own civil war.

The Center For American Progress has set up a site that shows how every single senator and every single congressman is dealing with Bush's plans to follow the McCain/Lieberman escalation policies. Many refuse to commit themselves-- they are after all, politicians with their own circle in Hell awaiting them. But many have come out for and against and if your congresscritter has you can tell him "good job; do more" or you can tell him you'll fire his ass next time you get the chance.