Way back on April 3, I gave an appreciation of where we were then with Iraq legislation, with a brief rundown of the story so far. Referring to the Murtha Proviso (once much loved before it picked up a presidential waiver proviso), I said

The main purpose of the Proviso (and the provisions current in the two versions of HR 1591) can only have been to draw a veto and trigger an inter-branch crisis: to wield the power of the purse and bring Bush to the negotiating table.

There would - this is still my interpretation - have been the most public of confrontations, quite different from the kind of connoisseurs-only stuff we've enjoyed so far. The public - the same public now wanting to get out of Iraq - would be put on the spot: back the Dems, who were trying to give them their wish, or go for business as usual with Bush.

Window-dressing apart, there only has ever been one choice to make: to confront Bush (as per the quote) or to give in.

Essentially, all the Congressional activity to date has been window-dressing. Which is not to say that it's been worthless: the Dems are the majority and have to be seen to do something. Hence the placeholder nonbinding resolutions - remember those? - and the long drawn out action on HR 1591, the bill doomed to be - made to be - vetoed.

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What in Sam Hill is going on? is a question not infrequently raised by proceedings on the Senate floor. Rather seems like a freemasonry in plain sight.

As witness the arcanum that is the water bill Iraq amendments. (Only in America...)

Yesterday, I took a stab (my hand guided by our friends at The Hill) at the MO to be employed. One or two things are a little clearer.

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A Hillpiece flags up a side-effect of the Iraq supplemental bill malarkey: there is a deficit in the Medicaid scheme for children SCHIP which Uncle Sam needs to plug.

Unfortunately, the necessary appropriation is manacled to the doomed Iraq bill.

It was in HR 1591 (vetoed) and is currently in HR 2206, which (if it passes the Senate) will suffer the same fate.

What I don't know is whether a separate apps bill for uncontroversial items (as I think (needs checking) the SCHIP extra funding is, even with the WH).

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We've had God knows how many texts and how much Congressional bleating on Iraq since the start of the 110th.

None of it has had the slightest bit of connection with the opinions or understandings of lefty spheroids, leading or rank-and-file.

Most of whom seem congenitally unable to see the wood for the trees.

Here's the wood: the Dem leaderships have two options when Bush vetoes HR 1591:

• Strategy A: they tell him he won't get the moolah until he signs, or hell freezes over; or

• Strategy B: they give in.

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On Sunday April 8 - my piece then - Levin said on ABC

We're not going to vote to cut funding, period.

Yesterday - on Fox - there was this:

WALLACE: But bottom line, Senator Levin, before I bring in Senator Graham, the Democrats will not allow money to run out for the troops.

LEVIN: That is absolutely correct. We've made that clear. We never have allowed that to happen.

So at least one thing is clear, m'kay?

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