Harry Reid - sticking to his pessimism

Harry Reid doesn't need no stinking experts. He doesn't need to listen to the military leaders on the ground who have seen an improvement on the ground in Iraq as a result of the surge. He doesn't need the reports of those who have been to Iraq and have reported back on the improvement since the surge began. Reporters in the New York Times, Newsweek and other such right wing outlets. Or reports from congressmen who have been there recently such as that neoconservative mouthpiece, Jack Murtha. No, not our Harry. He knows what he knows and ever since he termed the surge a failure at its beginning, he ain't gonna change his mind. So he still thinks it is a failure and that's that.

The Senate re-opened for business on Monday after a two-week Thanksgiving break, during which key Democrats traveled to Iraq and declared that the surge is working, at least from a security and military perspective. Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), one the top war critics, stunned fellow Democrats late last week with his statement that "the surge is working," even though he added that political reconciliation has been lagging. Murtha's view was backed by Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), who also said the surge worked after he returned from Iraq.

But Reid, in a Monday press conference, ceded no ground.

"The surge hasn't accomplished its goals," Reid said. "... We're involved, still, in an intractable civil war."

Reid's comments show that Democratic leaders in Washington may not be on the same page as their rank-and-file members when it comes to interpreting results on the ground in Iraq. Reid, as a leader, still needs to maintain some negotiating leverage as Democrats try to figure out a way to give President Bush some $50 billion in temporary war finding while at least attaching some strings to the money so it's not a blank check for the war.

Got that? It's all about the politics for Reid. He needs to figure out a way to give cover for Democrats who don't want to fund the Defense Department without putting in some face-saving demands for a pullout.

Reid also accused President Bush of bluffing about the potential layoffs of 100,000 Pentagon employees if the war funding doesn't come through immediately. Bush says civilian employees will be furloughed because the Pentagon will have to pull from regular accounts to fund the war due to the Democrats' intransigence on Iraq funding.

Reid says that's just not true, adding that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates assured the Senate that the Army and Marines have month [money] through the end of February.

"He's not leveling with the American people," Reid said. "The Army has enough money until the first of March."

I guess Reid doesn't understand that the Pentagon has to do planning in advance and they can't do that planning if they don't know the what the budget is going to be. He would rather play chicken with the troops and go around making his own military analysis based on his political positions rather than any input from the experts on the ground.