Spinning Off A Cliff

Leave it to Fox News to support the GOP talking points:

Democrats Feel Pressure After Bush Veto of Iraq War Spending Bill

If Dems "feel pressure" then they're delusional.

The pressure is solidly on the Preznit. Only a narrow margin of nutbars fully support him. But never let it be said that Bush yields to pressure. He usually does the opposite. So watch for the current pressure to result in a further escalation and committment to the war. There are already little news tidbits being released that indicate that the White House and Pentagon are preparing for deployment in Iraq well into 2008 and beyond, and with more troops. There are also indications (you'd have to be not paying attention to not see them) that the White House continues to ratchet down expectations for the escalation setting the stage for claims of "it's working!".

Which brings us back to the Republicans. Democrats have now for years faced an unyielding Bush and Republican party. They've had to toughen up and learn some hard political lesson about the dangers of enabling the addict-in-chief. Republicans, on the other hand, have been the co-addicts enjoying the fruits of the party-boy. The 2006 election, and not incidentally public opinion, changed all that. Now Republicans find themselves in opposition to the addict-in-chief for the first time. Oh, sure, they've had other skirmishes that could be easily explained (or bought off), but now they're facing election armaggedon.

This is why I think that Republican watch is so crucial. It is going to require a party revolt in the form of overriding a Bush veto, or removing to SOB, to move Bush. Nothing short of an unequivocal legal slap down is going to deter Bush. Beyond late summer-early fall, comprise will not happen if the Democrats continue to accept their election mandate and Republicans will be looking down the barrel of an election gun.

We shall continue to monitor if they are lemmings following off the cliff, or self-serving enough to be patriots.