Democrats double down on defeat

In the midst of indicators out of Iraq showing an improving situation since the surge started, the Democrats are trying to double down on their insistence that we withdraw now. Although the situation is still dicey, it is improved. But the Democrats continue to want to call the war a defeat and come home. They haven't adjusted their position at all since earlier this year and now they're contemplating forcing the Republicans to stage a filibuster of their newest pullout proposal.

Senate Democrats might force Republicans to wage a filibuster if the GOP wants to block the latest Iraq withdrawal bill, aides and senators said Tuesday.

That could set the stage for a dramatic end-of-the-year partisan showdown, which Democrats hope will help them turn voter frustration with Congress and the stalemate over Iraq into anger with the Republican Party.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), the number two Democrat in the chamber, said a forced filibuster is “possible” and would “generate attention.”

“We want to go to the bill, and [Republicans] have to decide initially whether they want us to go to the bill,” Durbin said. “I wouldn’t call it theatrics.”

The Senate is under pressure from the House Democrats to do more to try to block the Republicans from blocking them from passing a pullout measure.

Such a plan resembles the all-night debate — when cots were wheeled out — leading up to the July 18 vote to cut off a filibuster on an amendment by Levin and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) to require troops to return from Iraq in nine months. Republicans dismissed the move as theatrics.

Since then, the Levin-Reed language has been softened to include a 12-month goal, rather than a mandate, for withdrawing troops in Iraq. The measure, which is part of a $50 billion interim “bridge” fund for Iraq war operations, would also ban tactics such as water-boarding by setting into law the Army Field Manual, which does not allow for brutal interrogation tactics.

House leaders have been pressing Reid to intensify the fight with Republicans by forcing them to filibuster major bills rather than holding failed cloture votes and criticizing the GOP after bills are pulled from the floor.

That fissure broke into the open last week when House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) acknowledged asking Reid to stage more filibusters.

“That is the only way you can give Americans a clear view of who is obstructing change,” Hoyer said.

I think the Republicans are probably happy to be thrown into this briar patch. Although the media has cut back coverage of Iraq as the news has gotten better, forcing an actual filibuster might bring some more publicity to Republicans making their case for not running the war from Capitol Hill.

For the first time since losing control of Congress in 2006, Republicans are back on offense in the political struggle over the Iraq war, as Democratic plans to force a change in strategy by President Bush through peeling away his GOP support continue to yield few results.

Republicans are increasingly buoyed by perceived divisions among Democrats, seeming signs of progress on the ground in Iraq and the fact that the first brigade of U.S. troops started coming home Tuesday.

Democrats insist they are still united on ending the war. Public opinion polls also overwhelmingly favor Democrats who back a quick end to the conflict, and on Tuesday, Democratic leaders unveiled a report showing that the Iraq campaign will cost far more — as much as $3.5 trillion — if the United States stays engaged in Iraq for another decade.

But after a summer of bitter partisan battles over the war, Democrats are going into an Iraq funding battle this week with little hope of dividing Bush and Republicans on Capitol Hill, and they privately seem resigned that the White House will continue to have its way on funding the long-running conflict.

The House is set to debate an Iraq funding bill that liberals believe isn’t strong enough, Republicans refuse to embrace and the president plans to veto.

The Senate, meanwhile, is expected to take up the bill Thursday. But with Republicans insisting on a 60-vote, filibuster-proof threshold and Democrats saying they won’t send a bill to Bush without a troop withdrawal timetable, the measure is doomed.

There is a pervasive sense among Republicans, and even some Democrats, that the war debate has been reframed by signs of success and that both sides need to adapt to facts on the ground.

“I think momentum has been lost for the argument that the surge has failed,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of Bush’s strongest supporters in Congress. “The momentum is to allow the surge to continue. I don’t see anyone defecting from our side. If there’s any change in votes, it will be on their side.”

The Senate GOP should send the message to Senator Reid, Bring it on.