And, I read Matt Stoller taking Obama to task about not voting on it, but you know, Obama’s right. This is simply ridiculous, and it’s worse for Democrats. Those who voted for it merely marched to the Republican Piper like the no guts having fraidy cats that they are, meanwhile, the ones who voted against faired only slightly better but still allowed the Republicans to drag them down into the same kind of partisan bickering nonsense that has congressional approval ratings so low in the first place.

As for Iraq, well, we’re going to have to disagree there. But for what reason will have to wait, as I have way too much to do here and elsewhere to get into that, though I will try to go in much more depth later.

the short of it is simply that you would have to first believe that increasing the troops would actually help, that Petraeus’ assertions were accurate, and that that is what the majority of the people want. Further, Petraeus hasn’t asked for more troops, merely to keep levels where they are with minor cuts.

Given public skepticism of the Petraeus report, Dem’s could hardly gain much support by throwing their weight behind it. No, this still remains a large chunk of antipathy based on Democratic inability to put the breaks on our presence in Iraq.

And yes, AG Gonzales was ripe for a no confidence vote.

However, I think the Congressional ratings would shoot up if they actually got behind the war. President Bush has fumbled on it, and the politically astute would give the military effort a big push to get things over and done with quickly. “You need a kitchen sink to get AQI under control? Here, how about one with a granite countertop… oh and here’s another regiment. Take them and try to clean things up by May, so you can all come home.” It was the strategy Democrats used to regain control of Congress. Remember when they told Bush to listen to the Generals? They had a golden opportunity to listen to one themself, trump Bush, show support for the troops by giving them more support in the near term for the intentions of bringing them home by the next election.