The Dhimmicrats' Dilemma

The Democrats have successfully stuck themselves between Scylla and Charybdis, which has led to their wild antics over the last few months.

On the one hand, they have their rabid-anti-war base... the folks with the money. They have to placate these people, or their money dries up.

On the other hand, they have the voters. They know they can't be seen as pulling the rug out from under the troops, or the votes dry up.

Thus, the Party of the Donkey is trying its best to chart a narrow course between these two dangers. This is why they have well-publicized debates (like Harry's overnighter) talking about yanking funding--that's to please the ultra-radical lefties with the dollars. It's also why nothing ever really happens--that's to keep the voters from turning away from them.

We can give some credit for this state of affairs to President Bush. By clearly saying that he will veto any bill with a pullout date on it, he has taken away the Dhimmicrats' hope that they can drop the chaos that would ensue from a pullout in his lap. The Dems know now that Bush is no Nixon, he won't cooperate in a pullout that will leave things worse than they were before the invasion.

This also explains why General Petraeus sailed through his Congressional approval hearings. The Dems have one slim thread of hope, and they're clinging to it for all they're worth: that Petraeus can pacify enough of Iraq so that the Dems can actually force a pullout and not have Iraq degenerate into another Darfur... or Cambodia.

The big problem with that is that pacifying Iraq quite possibly will take quite a while... leaving the Dems waffling over cutting off funding.

Fun to watch, tho!