Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

I wasn't too thrilled about the watering down of a nonbinding proposal expressing dissatisfaction with the President's escalation plan for Iraq. Fortunately, there's always the Republican Party to save the day.

Just now, in an early test vote, EVERY REPUBLICAN except for Susan Collins voted against starting debate on the nonbinding resolutions. This includes Sen. Warner, AUTHOR of the proposal, and Sen. Hagel, arguably the most vocal antiwar critic in the entire Senate (it's all talk, as I've said many times... where's my Hagel troll now?). The Republicans had to protect their Preznit at all costs, so instead of allowing through a resolution which would have actually recommitted to Bush's Iraq policy, they shut it down. Harry Reid is apoplectic about it, and threatening to attach it to every appropriations bill coming down the pike. He gets to yell about how the Republicans don't want to talk about the war, and how the Democrats are trying to stop it.

This is brilliant. Thank you Republicans, for saving the Democrats from themselves, and framing this debate as between Democrats who want to end the war and Republicans who want to stop all debate on it. This will only make the American people angrier, and stiffen the resolve of Democrats to put together a bill with some teeth. This brings us CLOSER to ending the war.

UPDATE: Republicans are literally running away from the debate on Iraq. Well, congratulations, that little filibuster means you'll have to keep running, right into smaller and smaller minorities in 2008.