GOP should give Dems enough Rope

The Republicans are making a mistake by stopping a Democratic Senate vote on the resolution criticizing Bush on Iraq. As long as they stand in the way, the Senate Democrats can tell their antiwar constituencies that they are stymied by the bad GOP. But if the vote takes place, and it passes, and Bush sends in troops anyway, that sets the stage for a battle that can and will rip the Democratic Party apart: The fight to defund the escalation.

Hillary is going to oppose defunding and Edwards will support it. We don't know what Obama will do. But the antiwar activists will be enraged by the Democratic Party taking only symbolic action after they labored in the field to produce a Democratic Congress specifically so it could reject the war.

The GOP should not save the Democrats from themselves but should let the process unfold, allow a vote, and then force the issue to defunding. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) has anticipated the issue with a resolution banning all defunding, but until what Edwards calls, correctly, a "meaningless" resolution is out of the way, the defunding momentum cannot build sufficiently.

For those worried about the impact on morale of the troops of a resolution condemning the surge, imagine the positive effect a failure to cut off funding would have!

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