Underwhelmed

Well, that was anticlimactic. After a big buildup, the Senate bill to fund the Iraq war with $50 million tied to troop reduction died a very quick and nearly anonymous death on Friday. ThinkProgress gave it five lines. I couldn't even find the story at Atrios or Talking Points (although Greg Sargent has it at TPM Election Central). Apparently Minority Leader Mitch McConnell tried to go around normal Senate procedure to introduce a rival bill that would supply more money with absolutely no oversight whatsoever. Democrats rejected that, but they couldn't overcome veto threats from the Republicans. There had been some talk about having Republicans fight for their right to strike, making them go through the motions and deliver an actual filibuster against this bill, but as it turned out, nothing much happened, and the funding bill just simply disappeared.

Fortunately, we're not finished yet. The Prez has already stepped up and accused the Democrats of not supporting the troops in his weekly radio address. Although the Democrats seemed to let this fall through the cracks, the true test will remain whether the Democrats hold on to their position or if they cave once again and vote for funding with no restrictions whatsoever.