Give Em Hell Harry

The President held his "you guys should agree with me" meeting on Iraq, and reiterated that, hey, you guys should agree with me. Even with a President at 30%, there's a lot of pressure on the leadership when he says something like that,

Harry Reid passed the test.

During an hourlong meeting at the White House, the president told lawmakers directly he will not sign any bill that includes a timetable for a troop withdrawal, and they made it clear Congress will send him one anyway.

"We believe he must search his soul, his conscience and find out what is the right thing for the American people," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, told reporters after the session. "I believe signing this bill will do that."

There's simply no reason for him to say anything otherwise. The American people are overwhelmingly on his side. There is no political downside at all to defying this President. Furthermore, Iraq is falling apart and this surge strategy is simply not the solution, if there is any. Our troops, fine men and women though they are, are culpable but not capable to stop the raging violence that killed 200 Iraqis today. And the White House's top officials can't even get their stories straight, with Robert Gates calling the debate helpful. Rahm Emanuel thanked him for that today.

It looks like the conference report/final vote/veto will go down next week. I still submit that I would send Bush the exact same bill again and again until he signs it. We'll see where this goes.