Iraq Funding Measure Approved

As Don Surber notes, the margin of support for the Iraq funding bill in the Senate was greater than the margin on the original Iraq war authorization. 80-14 versus 77-23. The margin in the House was 280-142.

How is that the case when we're supposedly told that Democrats oppose the war in greater numbers now than when the issue came up in 2002. What's changed?

Pork?

Well, that's got something to do with it since the Iraq funding bill contains nearly $20 billion in pork programs, but that can't be it.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the situation in Iraq isn't as bad as the pundits and spinmeisters have been reporting and that information is finally filtering into Congressional hearts and minds? The situation is still grim, but there is good news coming out of such formerly hellish locales as Anbar province and even Baghdad. See Michael Yon, Mudville Gazette, JD Johannes, and Marines whose actions speak louder than the media's claims of failure. Instapundit had a roundup as well. Even the media is slowly coming around to reporting that the situation isn't as bad as it had been made out to be.

Presidential politics also has a role in this as Clinton and Obama both voted against the bill. Clinton voted for the authorization to go to war, but now votes against the funding of the same war. Both are chasing after the same group of anti-war leftists within the Democratic party, and both would appear to be outside the mainstream of the party given that so many Democrats voted to authorize the funding without any strings attached.

The Democrats lost in their efforts to shut down the war effort. Not only could they not sustain their veto against a lame duck, but they lost the battle to limit the war's duration. AJ Strata has more.

Jules Crittenden has a roundup of the political soundbites, which sound more like sour grapes than substantive policy statements. The Democrat leadership couldn't muster the votes and caved to the Administration. No amount of spin can change that. As bad as the situation is for the GOP on the immigration bill, the Iraq funding bill split Democrats just as badly.