More on Bush's veto, Democratic response...

This is one of those cartoons on which I may very well have gone too far. It's hard to tell at this point exactly where the Dems are going with this whole "bringing the war to an end" thing they swear they're gonna do... but their history and some ominous rumblings tell me that they're already looking for a way to chicken out.

Let's call it a "premonition"...

• Are the Democrats backing down on the timetable for withdrawal? Jonathan Weisman and Shailagh Murray say yes, and quote Pelosi as saying "We made our position clear. He made his position clear. Now it is time for us to try to work together." However, Weisman also produced a rather snotty piece of journalism in which he maintains that the Dems will be courting disaster if they try to confront Bush.
  
  Greg Sargent calls him on this, and correctly points out that the polls clearly show that the public is aching for someone to stand up to Bush on the war. Sargent also seems to think that it's too early to pass judgment on the Dems quite yet, as he reports that Pelosi is denying that they are backing down on the withdrawal language.
  
  Noam N. Levey and Janet Hook note that Republicans are starting to peel away from Bush on the war, but also say that the Dems will indeed drop the withdrawal timelines from the next spending bill.
  
  Jonathan Singer doesn't like the noises he's hearing from Democrats. Dick Pohlman also thinks they may have peaked.


• Here's a good one: the first Weisman article above says that White House officials may be willing to accede to "benchmarks" instead of a "timetable," but that "they want them to be tied to rewards for achievement, not penalties for failure [my emphasis]." This is extremely funny to me... the Bush administration is like a bratty teenager who habitually brings home F's on his report card, but if he barely passes with a D, he wants a new car.


• OK, so what exactly should the Democrats do on the supplemental spending bill? Send that sucker back to him. If he vetoes it, send it back to him again. Make little technical adjustments if you have to, but do not weaken it.
  
  David Sirota argues that "each volley will drive Bush further into isolation and consequently bring the war closer to an end. The less power a pro-war president has, the more we will be able to end the war."


• Marcus Mabry has more on Bush's showing of 28% in the Newsweek poll, and Sheryl Gay Stolberg has Bush's "Commander Guy" quote. Eric Kleefeld also has these two stories, but points out that Dana Perino claims that President Numbnuts never called himself "The Commander Guy," only "A Commander Guy" (according to a revised White House transcript).
  
  How unfair. I'm sure he sounded much less stupid than he is being portrayed...