Cut and Run Democrats Run From Timetables

The cut and run Democrats have cut and run from their repeated attempts to impose unconstitutional restrictions on the Commander in Chief's ability to fight the war in Iraq. They will be sending up a bill free of deadlines and timetables or restrictions on how long the money will flow.

In grudging concessions to President Bush, Democrats intend to draft an Iraq war-funding bill without a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and shorn of billions of dollars in spending on domestic programs, officials said Monday.

The legislation would include the first federal minimum wage increase in more than a decade, a top priority for the Democrats who took control of Congress in January, the officials added.

While details remain subject to change, the measure is designed to close the books by Friday on a bruising veto fight between Bush and the Democratic-controlled Congress over the war. It would provide funds for military operations in Iraq through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.

Democrats in both houses are expected to seek other opportunities later this year to challenge Bush’s handling of the unpopular conflict.

Instead, we will see an increase in the federal minimum wage, which, all things considered, is inconsequential.

The anti-war Left will not be happy. The Democrats who had been promising to end the war now have to answer to the unhinged left which forms the base of their power. We've seen what the anti-war left does to those who cross them; they seek to replace them with candidates that have little chance of winning elections and driving them from the Democrat party.

Porkbusters who were unhappy with the billions in unrelated pork barrel programs in the earlier versions should also be happy that the funding bill was stripped of all those programs. This bill is a better version and passes constitutional muster to boot.