The Netroots And War-Funders

We've taken a gander at reactions in the liberal blogosphere to the Democrats' capitulation on war funding, and they are predictably inner-directed and selfish -- and we don't mean that in a bad way.

Dem leaders are "lying whore[s]"; have "bizarre fear[s]", they're more afraid of Bush than they are of a "demoralized grassroots base"; they're avatars of "learned helplessness."

Maybe so. To the netroots' collective credit, they don't seem to buy the argument that political realities "forced" the Democratic leadership to drop withdrawal dates. Political realities are not like the laws of physics; they can be changed, and, indeed, are unequivocally useful today for Democrats, rather than Republicans. But they aren't whimsical social constructions.

It's a bit inaccurate to say that Americans by and large support legislation that would cut off funds for the troops. Yes, yes, that's the GOP frame, but Dems bought into it -- cutting off funds being the only way to exercise their constitutional authority.

Matthew Yglesias cites a poll showing that upwards of 60% percent of Americans favor a no-strings-attached funding bill with benchmarks -- exactly what passed yesterday -- to inexplicably argue that Democrats were too afraid of a confrontation with President Bush over the war to stand up for what a majority of Americans elected them to do.

The upside for Dems is that they'll simply have to wait about three months before they (probably) get their way, here.