Slapping Down Pelosi
Surprisingly, the Los Angeles Times takes Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats to the woodshed over their "plan" to impose a timetable on the war. They are polite but quite clear that the strategy is bad and completely wrong.
By interfering with the discretion of the commander in chief and military leaders in order to fulfill domestic political needs, Congress undermines whatever prospects remain of a successful outcome. It's absurd for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) to try to micromanage the conflict, and the evolution of Iraqi society, with arbitrary timetables and benchmarks.
Congress should not hinder Bush's ability to seek the best possible endgame to this very bad war. The president needs the leeway to threaten, or negotiate with, Sunnis and Shiites and Kurds, Syrians and Iranians and Turks. Congress can find many ways to express its view that U.S. involvement, certainly at this level, must not go on indefinitely, but it must not limit the president's ability to maneuver at this critical juncture.
Bush's wartime leadership does not inspire much confidence. But he has made adjustments to his team, and there's little doubt that a few hundred legislators do not a capable commander in chief make. These aren't partisan judgments — we also condemned Republican efforts to micromanage President Clinton's conduct of military operations in the Balkans.
The partisan posturing on this is too much for even the LAT to stomach. The Democratic leadership might want to take note that they are losing media support for their antics. That could spell disaster for the party in the long run. They have bet the farm on losing this war. It is not a good idea to bet against America in the long run.
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Blue Crab Boulevard » Stark Warning — March 13, 2007 @ 5:47 am
By crosspatch, March 12, 2007 @ 10:08 am
They don’t care about “the long run”. Their vision extends no farther than 2008. They care about nothing other than winning the next election cycle. They will deal with the fallout of anything they do now when/if it becomes a problem. In other words … there are no such things as “potential problems” to the Democrats … something is only a problem when it actually becomes a problem and they are relying on a friendly media to keep them out of hot water with the voters. A turning media would scare the bejezus out of them.
By Quilly Mammoth, March 12, 2007 @ 7:44 pm
This is the LA Times, and earlier the WaPO’s editorial page, attempt to tell the leaders of the Democrat Majority that the Nutzrootz did not elect them and they need to proceed with caution.