Read The Fine Print

The Republicans are going to try and get a whole lot of mileage out of this. Just be sure to read the fine print ....

Such as this:

Sens. Richard Lugar (R-IN) and John Warner (R-VA) “said today that President Bush should seek a new war authorization and present a plan to Congress by Oct. 16 outlining contingency plans in Iraq. Those plans, which would include reducing American forces, should begin by the end of the year.” Their measure will be “considered next week when the Iraq war debate resumes.”

So the big move by these Republicans is to a) reduce troop numbers ... translation ... return to the pre-surge tactics and b) not ask it to be done until October. By that time the almighty Petraeus will come forward and bless the escalation. And the music will continue to play.

I know I'm supposed to be grateful that these nutbars are "coming around". But it's certainly too little and way too late. The too little part is the most important thing for now. Republicans will continue to try and peel away slices of Democrats from a withdrawal plan. They are merely carrying out Bush's play-out-the-clock strategy.

Added: Funny, I went from posting this to this from Atrios:

There will come a point where all of the very serious members of Congress (the wanker caucus) will come together on some bill or another which will pretend to force Bush to do something about Iraq but which won't actually force him to do anything. David Broder will applaud, the media will praise the president for not vetoing it, and only us dirty fucking hippie bloggers will point out that it doesn't change a damn thing.