Democrats Stand Firm: Binding Dates For Iraq Pullout!

For the past few weeks, there's been much speculation as to whether or not the Democrats would cave in to the media and White House propaganda on the Iraq Spending Bill. The common consensus has been that they would not have the courage to stand their ground and tie the spending bill to a firm withdrawal date. To many, this was to be an ultimate test of whether or not the Democrats understood what the voters had demanded, last November. To those who had criticized the Democrats who worked so hard for this complicated bill, while not immediately defunding the war, this would prove, once and for all, that they were spineless sellouts. Well, guess what?

New York Times:

Congressional Democrats agreed Monday to ignore President Bush’s veto threat and send him a $124 billion war spending bill that orders the administration to begin pulling troops out of Iraq by Oct. 1.

“On Iraq, the American people want a new direction, and we are providing it,” said Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, a leader of the Congressional negotiators who came to terms on the legislation that has become a test of wills between Mr. Bush and the Democratic majority on Capitol Hill.

The House and Senate are to vote on the agreement and send it to the White House by the end of the week, and Democrats expressed confidence that they could secure narrow approval. But even as they ironed out differences between House and Senate approaches to Iraq policy and cut some spending that has drawn Republican scorn, Democrats acknowledged that the bill would be rejected by the president.

Now, I've already expressed my opinion that nothing the Democrats do will end the war as long as the Bush-Cheney Administration remains in power. I won't go into all the details, but you can read my old diary:

If You Want To End The War, You Must Support Impeachment!

I won't claim that this bill is a silver bullet, and I won't claim it is the assertion of leadership I would like to see. That would be impeachment. Even so, the Democrats are standing tall, calling for a pullout, busting the Overton Window wide open, and disproving those critics who believed they hadn't the guts to stick to their own declared strategy.

As the Washington Post puts it:

The $124 billion bill, slated for final votes in the House and Senate tomorrow and Thursday, sets up a veto clash with President Bush by week's end. Some congressional Democrats had considered making advisory all dates for withdrawing U.S. troops in the hopes of persuading Bush to sign the bill, which Democratic leaders said provides $96 billion -- more than the White House requested -- for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But with the president standing firm on his plans to veto any language on the timing of the war, Democratic leaders stuck to binding dates for initial troop pullouts.

Bush will veto this bill. The media will probably promote his spin that the Democrats are delaying funds for the troops. We can't let them get away with it. The Democrats are funding the troops and calling for a deadline. Binding dates! That's what the public wants. Maybe, just maybe, despite all the criticism, the Democrats do actually know what they're doing!