It's the money. It's the money. It's the money.
A lot of these Democrats feared that their Republican opponents in the next election might effectively paint them as unpatriotic, troop-hating cut-and-runners if they had voted against the funding supplemental.
Those of us not running for office think that they are being way too cautious, and that the Iraq civil war is so unpopular as a pastime that no significant part of the electorate will punish them for demanding an end to US involvement in it. But then we don't have to run against a well-heeled opponent with lots of money for television spots with which to rip off our faces in only a year.
Now -- we can rant and rage, hammer our representatives' offices on the Hill with phone calls and emails. Or we can do a better job of linking the vote to the money and the money to the war industries.
Meanwhile there's something else Democrats should be doing. They could be way more specific about the use of American military and private contractors in Iraq, way more wary about the use of resources for combat, way more supportive of moving American resources into reconstruction and security, always with proper controls and oversight. Stop the war industry from creating more sleazy justifications for combat.
