I generally subscribe to Carl Sagan's admonition that prophecy is a lost art, but in this case I feel fairly safe in going out on a limb and predicting that in the matter of setting a timetable to get troops out of Iraq, Bush will veto the funding bill with the timeline attached, and then the Democrats will cave and give him the money anyway. They will cave because that is their nature. They have no spines, no courage, no convictions. They are afraid of their own rhetorical shadows. Want to scare a Democrat? Just remember three magic words: Weak. On. Defense.
All of which is quite unfortunate, because the Dem's position is quite strong, and they would almost certainly win this fight simply by saying, "No, we did not refuse to fund the troops. We DID fund the troops, albeit with conditions attached that are supported by the vast majority of the American people. It is the PRESIDENT who chose not to accept those conditions and thereby subject our troops to harm." But they will not say that. They will cave. They will meekly say, "I'm terribly sorry, Mr. President. Here's your money, no strings attached. Only please please PLEASE don't call say (shudder!) that we didn't support the troops."
God, I hope I'm wrong. But I don't think I am. If the Democrats don't even have the balls to issue subpoenas in the attorneygate scandal (authorizing subpoenas and actually issuing them are not the same thing), where are they gong to find the intestinal fortitude to stand their ground when something really meaningful is at stake?
Alas, you were right.
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