The Week -- Can You Hear Me Now?

It was a good first two days for the House, I believe. There was much noise from the GOP side about how the new leadership were ramming bills through without consideration. Yet the four bills on the docket next week--approving the 9/11 commission's recommendations, raising the minimum wage, providing for embryonic stem cell research, and making changes to the Medicare prescription drug programs--are by no means new items, seeing the light of day for the very first time just this week. (An argument can be made about holding off on the Medicare changes--those always don't seem to do what you'll think they do, of course.)

Yet all of this is bound to be a sideshow compared to the announcement (date and time TBA) of what the President intends to do now regarding Iraq. Another good move by the Dems here last week, as the letter from Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid on the subject places a clear marker--at last--of where the Democratic Party is going to go with this. (To be sure: there are those on the left who are unsatisfied with the proposal--sooner rather than later is not soon enough for them. That can't be helped--at least now there is a unified (somewhat) message.) The bad news is that perception is reality, and if the GOP can tar the opposition with claims that they are [jarring orchestral chord] not supporting the troops [/chord], then the President may be able to get his surge.

Lot of good it will do him, though. If there is not significant movement in the right direction, in terms of stabilizing things (and, to a great extent, getting the Iraqi government away from sectarian divisions and other nitwittery) in the next six months, then the calls for an immediate withdrawal will gather serious pace. That will take the politics of the nation into a tailspin, as the President will, in all likelihood, ignore them, thus entrenching both sides even further, and making any kind of success, which is now improbable as it is, virtually impossible to reach.

The wildcard in all of this are the impending investigations, which may force the President's hand, if the heat gets too hot, even for him. We shall see.