A Republican War

It's official. As the New York Times reports:

The Senate on Thursday rejected a Democratic resolution to withdraw most American combat troops from Iraq in 2008, but a similar measure advanced in the House, and Democratic leaders vowed to keep challenging President Bush to change course in Iraq.

The vote in the Senate was 50 against and 48 in favor, 12 short of what was needed to pass, with just a few defections in each party. It came just hours after the House Appropriations Committee, in another vote largely on party lines, approved an emergency spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan that includes a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq. The House will vote on that legislation next Thursday, setting the stage for another confrontation.

The action in both houses threw into sharp relief the Democratic strategy of ratcheting up the pressure, vote by vote, to try to force the White House to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq. But it also highlighted Republican unity in opposition; in the Senate, only one Republican, Gordon H. Smith of Oregon, voted with the Democrats.

It's very simple: those who hate this war can now blame the Republicans. The Democrats tried to stop it. The Republicans prevented them. The Iraq War, once and for all, is a Republican War. Please remind your friends, when they vote in 2008.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that:

Four American soldiers were killed and two others were wounded Thursday when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicles in eastern Baghdad, the U.S. military said....

Earlier, a car bomb ripped through a square in central Baghdad, killing at least eight people, including several Iraqi police officers manning a nearby checkpoint, officials said.

And a car bomber slammed into a bus ferrying government workers in Iskandariyah, a Sunni insurgent stronghold south of Baghdad. At least four people were killed and 24 were injured, a Babil province police spokesman said.