http://141.161.16.100/faculty/documents/tushnet.pdf

A good read, put into the context of our congress / (P)resident showdown.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/7/192112/0900

Congress is going to lose on this one. Bush is out there every day hammering them on their Iraq bill and the Democrats are almost invisible in response. Only Howard Dean seems to have said anything - but Congressional Democrats need to be out there, forcefully defending their bills. Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi is halfway around the world changing the subject to whether her trying to arrange peace between the Israelis and the Syrians is appropriate, while Bush hammers on.

Bush doesn't give a damn if the troops are stuck in Iraq without supplies - so he's never going to back down on this. What does he have to lose now? He's leaving office in 652 days (but whose counting?). Congress needs to be re-elected and they won't win if they are held responsible for denying our troops supplies, even if Bush is ultimate responsible - perception is what will matter to the American public. And so far, the Dems are doing a lousy job responding to Bush on this one.

The Dems will have to cave - as Bush has been saying, they are basically only making a statement anyway. They aren't going to deny funding - they're just going to have to pass some sort of face saving, completely non-binding, "Gee, wouldn't it be nice if the troops came home by 2008, but they don't have to?" language and Bush can sign it saying, "OK, let's hope they come home by 2008 but they probably won't." Bush is just trying to take away any Democratic gain on this one.

Andrew