Barack Obama is complaining that the press doesn’t take him seriously enough. Just this once, we’re going to side with the media.
Like a lot of battle plans, Senate majority leader Harry Reid’s didn’t survive contact with the enemy. He wanted his troops to inflict damage on President Bush by voting for a resolution against the surge. That would have been an easy vote for Democrats, since the surge polls poorly. But Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell’s forces outmaneuvered Reid. McConnell insisted that Republicans be allowed to offer their own resolution: one opposing any cutoff of funds to our troops already there. That resolution would have divided Democrats. Some of them want to cut off funds, some of them want to wait until the idea becomes more popular, some of them want no responsibility for our foreign policy, and some of them oppose a cutoff. Democrats in that second camp were especially worried, since voting for the resolution today would tie their hands tomorrow. Reid had to cancel a vote for his resolution in order to block the Republicans. But he still has trouble on his left flank. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has forthrightly explained that an anti-surge resolution in the House is the first step toward possibly cutting off funds. Senator Reid ran from Senate Republicans, but he won’t be able to hide from House Democrats.
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