The Iraq circle game

By Libby

My main man, the relentlessly prolific
Cernig at Newshoggers, has already put up a brilliant post on this hot story of the day which I urge you to go over and read but I'll briefly recap the major developments here for the sake of the archives.

The House Democrats passed a new funding bill that didn't include timetables for withdrawal but did include benchmarks for the Iraqi government to satisfy by July in order to obtain additional funding. The GOPers raised holy hell about any restrictions at all being included but failed to get them removed. The bill went to the Senate where they're still trying to work out a compromise with the White House on sending something to Oval office that the Decider/Commander Guy might feel inclined to sign.

So far that looks like a fool's hope. Big headlines trumpet that Bush is open to signing a bill that includes benchmarks -- as long as there's no consequences attached for failing to meet them -- and he's threatening to veto anything that doesn't extend funding into September anyway. So in other words, it's still pretty much a blank check or nothing for our Feckless Leader. As the NYT notes in a good editorial this morning:

The really important question now facing Washington is the one Mr. Bush still refuses to address: how, while there is still some time left, to design an exit strategy that contains the chaos in Iraq and minimizes the damage to United States interests when American troops inevitably leave.

In essence, nothing has appreciably changed but at least the Democrats are showing some resolve in not backing down in the face of empty threats and laughable rhetoric from the White House and the Republicans. That at least, is the first real sign of progress we've seen in this abysmal occupation in the last four years.