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Do the Dems represent Moqtada al-Sadr's best hope?
Paul Mirengoff

Robert Kagan argues that "the surge is succeeding." According to Kagan, "there is substantial evidence that the new counterinsurgency strategy, backed by the infusion of new forces, is having a significant effect."

First, he argues that simply by reversing the sense that the U.S. was about to pull out, the surge has shifted the dynamic. Moreover, leading insurgents and militia leaders reportedly have fled from Baghdad. Coalition forces, by contrast, are sticking around this time, a major departure from past practice. Consequently, there is at least some evidence that fear of civil war is slowly being replaced by optimism that peace might one day return to the city.

Kagan also argues that, as the security context is improving, so too is the political situation. ...

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Kucinich smacks "run-and-hide" Dems
Michelle Malkin

First, Democrat Rep. David Obey spanks "idiot liberals." Now, Democrat presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is calling out the cowards who won't debate on Fox News. Punchy!

The cancellation in the past two days of two planned nationally televised debates because of candidates’ “scheduling conflicts” and unwillingness to participate smacks of “manipulation by some candidates who would rather run and hide than defend their records and their positions on the war,” Ohio Congressman and Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich said today while campaigning in Texas...

...Other candidates were trying to sidestep the Nevada debate because they claimed that the sponsoring television network, Fox News Channel, was conservatively biased.

“If you want to be the President of the United States, you can’t be afraid to deal with people with whom you disagree politically,” Kucinich said. “No one is further removed from Fox’s political philosophy than I am, but fear should not dictate decisions that affect hundreds of millions of Americans and billions of others around the world who are starving for real leadership.”

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... For some historical perspective, see Victor Davis Hanson's History and the Movie "300".

... 300 preserves the spirit of the Thermopylae story. The Spartans, quoting lines known from Herodotus and themes from the lyric poets, profess unswerving loyalty to a free Greece. They will never kow-tow to the Persians, preferring to die on their feet than live on their knees.

If critics think that 300 reduces and simplifies the meaning of Thermopylae into freedom versus tyranny, they should reread carefully ancient accounts and then blame Herodotus, Plutarch, and Diodorus — who long ago boasted that Greek freedom was on trial against Persian autocracy, free men in superior fashion dying for their liberty, their enslaved enemies being whipped to enslave others.

Scratched in the wall of an ancient Greek outhouse:

Here I sit,
Cheeks a strainin'
Giving birth
To another IranPersian.

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Code Pinkos pester Pelosi; more Obey-mania 
Michelle Malkin

I've said before I think the homes of public figures should be off-limits to political protesters. It's incivil and unncessary. Save it for the public square. Despite my deep disregard for Speaker Nancy Pelosi's views, I feel the same way about the anti-war zealots who tramped up to Speaker Nancy Pelosi's home in San Francisco:

A few dozen peace activists marched across the Golden Gate Bridge and gathered outside the San Francisco home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday, demanding that Congress stop funding the war in Iraq.

"San Francisco has been against this war from the very beginning," said Toby Blome, a physical therapist who organized the event. "This is our fifth year of the war, and Nancy needs to wake up and represent San Franciscans."

Blome, holding a plate of cheese and bread and a glass of wine, was stopped on her way to Pelosi's front door and told the Speaker would not see them. Blom and about 10 other activists said they plan to camp outside the residence overnight.

Meanwhile:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is struggling to round up Democratic support for an emergency spending bill that would also pull American troops out of Iraq.

As Democrats seek to lower troop numbers, President Bush is moving in the other direction. Vowing to veto any deadline for withdrawal, Bush asked Congress for 8,200 more troops for Iraq and Afghanistan this weekend. ...

What's the phrase I'm looking for? Oh, yeah: "Idiot liberals."

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Speaking of Rep. David Obey's famous phrase, the anti-war extremist he confronted last week is headed back to his office. She has issued a press release: ...

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Liberals All But Defeated On Iraq Bill 
Dan Riehl

Precisely how it will play out remains to be seen, but read this inside politics post from Chris Bowers at MyDD and you'll know the nutroots has been given a boot right up the butt from the Democrats they so fiercely supported in the last election.

If, upon the defeat of this bill, a supplemental without any strings attached will easily pass through the House, then I have serious concerns over the leadership's willingness to even fight for this compromise bill once it is either vetoed or defeated via filibuster in the Senate. One of those things will almost certainly take place, and so if progressives are willing to compromise in order to get this bill through the House, then the leadership better be willing to stand behind this compromise. If, instead, it turns out that progressives have been placed in the position of Charlie Brown trying to kick the football on this one, don't expect as many of us to get behind a compromise like this next time around. I am not particularly energetic to fight for Democrats who don't fight for themselves. The House leadership better be ready to go to the mat in defense of this bill.

Bowers stops at concluding the obvious, opting to only acknowledge it as a possibility for now. But he knows what's coming. Maybe he's just trying to let himself and the nutroots down slowly. Whether it dies in the Senate or through a veto doesn't matter. The clock will force the Democrats to put through a straight on funding bill, the war in Iraq will go forward as it should and after the far Left mopes a bit, they'll focus their rage on the sensible elements of the Democrat Party, setting the political stage for another 1968.

For all the screaming about Iraq being another Vietnam, the Left failed to learn the ultimate lesson of that very thing - it was Vietnam that relegated them to the wilderness when it came time to elect a President charged with implementing foreign policy. Far from learning from that mistake, they are energized to repeat it. ...

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Murtha’s New Plan: Surrender Guantanamo
A J Strata

Brain Droppings (a small, upcoming blog that links here often) noted a new Murtha strategy arising from the ashes of his other failed strategies. Apparently since surrendering Iraq seems too hard to pull off Murtha is now attempting to surrender Guantanamo:

“It sets us back in the war on terrorism to be maintaining Guantanamo,” said Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), who’s heading an investigation of the facility for the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.

“It will enhance our reputation to close it down and to apply our system of justice to all of these detainees,” he added.

That’s it Mad Murtha, you go fight for the righs of the terrorists. As I predicted last year in my Democrat Contract With Al Qaeda (which outlines all the legislative promises those suicidal liberals would pass to appease al Qaeda) Murtha is working on item number two in the contract:

SECOND, We will enact legislation to release all Al Qaeda members now held in custody in the GITMO Gulag, while providing legal counsel to all who have been unfairly detained during this unfortunate international misunderstanding between Al Qaeda and America. We will ensure all detainees have options for bail and parole so they can continue with their life’s efforts while the legal issues surrounding their detention are worked out. Every ex-detainee will be provided the services of an ACLU lawyer.

Amazing isn’t it? You think I exaggerate? Well, not really: ...

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Dennis Kucinich, Profile In Courage 
Ed Morrissey

Who would have guessed that of all the candidates in the Democratic presidential primary race, Dennis Kucinich would show the most testicular fortitude? The man who demands a Department of Peace and the establishment of "peace math", etc, called out his fellow Democrats for redeploying over the debate horizon after left-wing extremists demanded that they pull out of a debate televised by the Fox News Channel: ...

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Democrats Implode On Iraq
A J Strata

It did not take the Dems very long at all to totally skewer themselves on Iraq. They surpassed my wildest dreams of crashing and burning. Just as I gave the Reps too much credit for being able to survive the 2006 elections, I must have given the Dems too much credit for having even minimal political acumen to stave off disaster - at least for two months! But here we are entering the 3rd month of the ‘last chance’ dem Congress and this is what the LA Times is saying about the dems:

AFTER WEEKS OF internal strife, House Democrats have brought forth their proposal for forcing President Bush to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by 2008. The plan is an unruly mess: bad public policy, bad precedent and bad politics. If the legislation passes, Bush says he’ll veto it, as well he should.

And that is just the lead in paragraph, ...

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Iraq War Bill Text Reveals Related Provisions
by Scott Ott

(2007-03-12) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, today warned President George Bush not to veto the Democrat-sponsored Iraq war redeployment bill, and for the first time she released the full text of the measure revealing some previously unmentioned initiatives.

Although some Congressional Republicans complained that Democrats stuffed the bill with unrelated provisions, Rep. Pelosi insisted that “all of its diverse parts share a common thread.”

In addition to the plan to pull out U.S. troops if the Iraqi government fails to meet certain benchmarks for quelling sectarian violence on a prescribed timeline, the bill also contains language that would…

–Withdraw police from high-crime neighborhoods in major U.S. cities until street gangs put an end to shootings, stabbings and other criminal acts. The bill would allow police to remain in the neighborhood only if they were no longer needed.
– Change the law to require ...

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Reassignment: Desk Job!
Jules Crittenden

LA Times gets it half right.  Pelosi makes a lousy general. LA Times wants it both ways, her goals are to be applauded but her methods stink. LAT leaves the door open to the notion that Bush may be right, but isn’t ready to … you know, say something crazy.

But it gets more interesting when you look at this news, also in today’s LA Times:  Pentagon fires up the fallback planning, in advance of any funding cut.  Connect the LA Times dots, and there’s La-La’s suggested strategy for Podium General Pelosi: quit messing around, cut the funding, the Pentagon will take care of the rest.  The Times article helpfully points out the futility of further resistance:

“This part of the world has an allergy against foreign presence,” said a senior Pentagon official, adding that chances of success with a large U.S. force may be diminishing. “You have a window of opportunity that is relatively short. Your ability to influence this with a large U.S. force eventually gets to the point that it is self-defeating.”

Meanwhile, Pelosi has to do something quick. ...

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Lefties eat their own
Don Surber

A bunch of lefty protesters gathered Sunday outside the home of a government official to demand that the U.S. cut off funding for the war in Iraq, the AP reported. The official’s name: Nancy Pelosi.

She voted against the war.

“San Francisco has been against this war from the very beginning,” said Toby Blome, a physical therapist who organized the event. “This is our fifth year of the war, and Nancy needs to wake up and represent San Franciscans.”

Bewildering, isn’t it?

Pelosi is not alone, the AP reported:

U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel’s office in Chicago was targeted on Thursday, and peace activists dressed in pink showed up recently at the Senate offices of presidential hopefuls John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Other recent protest targets include Reps. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and David Obey of Wisconsin and Sens. Richard Durbin of Illinois and Barbara Mikulski of Maryland. All four Democrats voted against the 2002 measure authorizing the war.

Way to go guys. Without Emanuel and Pelosi, there would be no Democratic majority in the House (although they were ably helped by the incompetence and sloth of Dennis Hastert, the greed of Duke Cunningham, and the lust of Mark Foley).

But we are dealing with people who are never satisfied with anything. They are a small group of people; AP reported there are twice as many conservatives as there are liberals (via James Joyner). They prefer looking from the outside in. Now that they are inside, they turn on their own. ...

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Video: “Idiot liberals” forget Democratic plan for Iraq
Ian Schwartz

CNN played video of a presser where David “Idiot liberal” Obey AND his “idiot liberal” friend, Speaker Nancy Pelosi could not recall the actual date when they would began the 180 day countdown until defeat. In Rep. Obey’s case he couldn’t even remember the year

Transcript:

REP. DAVID R. OBEY, D-WIS.: Troops must be out of a combat role by October — I mean, by August of 19 — 2007.

REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF.: 2008. If they meet (inaudible).

OBEY: I’m sorry, that’s right.

PELOSI: OK. But if they haven’t made any progress by July, we begin the 180 days. If they haven’t made any. If they haven’t made — if the president cannot demonstrate progress by July, we begin the 180 days.

UNKNOWN: July 1st or 31st?

PELOSI: Is it July 1st or 31st? July 1st?

*** Update and bump. Original timestamp 03:23, multiple updates since

Dems Abandon War Authority Provision 
AP. Hat tip: Austin Bay

WASHINGTON (AP) - Top House Democrats retreated Monday from an attempt to limit President Bush's authority for taking military action against Iran as the leadership concentrated on a looming confrontation with the White House over the Iraq war.

Officials said Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of the leadership had decided to strip from a major military spending bill a requirement for Bush to gain approval from Congress before moving against Iran.

Conservative Democrats as well as lawmakers concerned about the possible impact on Israel had argued for the change in strategy.

The developments occurred as Democrats pointed toward an initial test vote in the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday on the overall bill, which would require the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by Sept. 1, 2008, if not earlier. The measure also provides nearly $100 billion to pay for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The White House has issued a veto threat against the measure, and Vice President Dick Cheney attacked its supporters in a speech, declaring they "are telling the enemy simply to watch the clock and wait us out." ...

The Iran-related proposal stemmed from a desire to make sure Bush did not launch an attack without going to Congress for approval, but drew opposition from numerous members of the rank and file in a series of closed-door sessions last week.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said in an interview there is widespread fear in Israel about Iran, which is believed to be seeking nuclear weapons and has expressed unremitting hostility about the Jewish state.

"It would take away perhaps the most important negotiating tool that the U.S. has when it comes to Iran," she said of the now-abandoned provision.

"I didn't think it was a very wise idea to take things off the table if you're trying to get people to modify their behavior and normalize it in a civilized way," said Rep. Gary Ackerman of New York.

Several officials said there was widespread opposition to the proposal at a closed-door meeting last week of conservative and moderate Democrats, who said they feared tying the hands of the administration when dealing with an unpredictable and potentially hostile regime in Tehran. ...

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Michelle Malkin has the latest here.