Dem Iraq Dodge Won’t Buy Relief

The Democrats hope that by attempting, symbolically, to force a timetable for withdrawal and then failing they will appease the left sufficiently to cave into White House demands for a pretty clean funding bill. But the left will not be easily fooled. The four Democratic senators running for president all sided with 26 of their colleagues to support an Iraq funding bill with a withdrawal provision attached. Now that that bill has failed, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will trot happily to the White House to raise the white flag and support a war-funding bill with only token restrictions. If Clinton, Obama, Biden and Dodd vote for this compromise they will be voting themselves into a perilously weak position in the presidential primaries. But if Clinton and Obama vote against the compromise, their votes will leave John Edwards without a campaign platform and will guarantee a two-way race on Feb. 5. If they split — with Clinton backing the compromise and Obama opposing it — it will breathe new life into the Obama candidacy.