Joe is pissed

Jesus Christ, is there no one with balls enough to send the President a bill that limits his ability to fuck up the war any further? I swear to God, this is a shameful episode in the history of opposition politics. Right now, I don’t want to be a Democrat. The American public wants this war to end. They want the soldiers back home rather than blown to bits in some shithole Baghdad neighborhood. The Democrats in Congress should have sent the Commander Guy a bill with some teeth. Those assholes had the numbers in Congress and on the street and still rolled over for Bush. How very fucking brave of them. From the Post:

The spending package, expected to total $120 billion when the final version is released today, would require Bush to surrender virtually none of his war authority [emphasis mine]. Democrats were working to secure two other priorities that the president had previously resisted: an increase in the minimum wage and funding for domestic programs, including veterans' benefits, Hurricane Katrina relief and agricultural aid.

Instead of sticking with troop-withdrawal dates, Democrats accepted a GOP plan to establish 18 political and legislative benchmarks for the Iraqi government, with periodic reports from Bush on its progress, starting in late July. If the Iraqis fall short, they could forfeit U.S. reconstruction aid.

Benchmarks? Ugh. And what is even more frustrating, when those benchmarks are not met, we punish the Iraqi people. We are saying to them your government is a train wreck so you don’t get a water treatment plant. This will only further enrage the populace while we conveniently provide US soldiers as targets for retribution. So not only did the Democrats wuss out yet again, they are going to send Bush a funding measure that is just plain dumb. Harry Reid offers this bullshit defense:

Reid called the benchmark language "extremely weak," but he noted that Bush had initially demanded a bill with no strings attached on Iraq. "For heaven's sake, look where we've come," Reid said. "It's a lot more than the president ever expected he'd have to agree to."

Look where we’ve come? Just shut the hell up with that noise. The Dems came from standing on principle and opposing war without end. Now they are kneeling before a politically neutered President like a common supplicant. Way to fucking go guys. Bravura performance…