There’s Something About Harry….

by Cassandra | August 31, 2007 10:44 am

Something desperate[1], that is:

Saying the coming weeks will be “one of the last opportunities” to alter the course of the war, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said he is now willing to compromise with Republicans to find ways to limit troop deployments in Iraq.

Reid acknowledged that his previous firm demand for a spring withdrawal deadline had become an obstacle for a small but growing number of Republicans who have said they want to end the war but have been unwilling to set a timeline.

“I don’t think we have to think that our way is the only way,” Reid said of specific dates during an interview in his office here. “I’m not saying, ‘Republicans, do what we want to do.’ Just give me something that you think you would like to do, that accomplishes some or all of what I want to do.”

Suddenly the record of the Senate Majority Leader is not looking too good, Ed Morrissey notes:

First, he and Nancy Pelosi took 108 days to get a supplemental funding bill passed, hoping to pressure the White House into ordering a withdrawal that Congress could easily have accomplished by defunding the mission. Instead, with time running out, Congress passed exactly what Bush wanted. Then Reid decided to pull an all-nighter, which turned into a debacle when Republicans actually showed up for it and spent more time on the floor than Reid did, arguing against an early withdrawal.

The final straw for Reid came when he dropped the war debate entirely. He figured that Iraq would get worse and the pressure on Republicans would increase. Unfortunately, Reid miscalculated again. The end of the debate gave the surge some breathing space, and the perception of its success got shaped by actual facts and news rather than Democrat spin.

Now Reid wants to cut a deal, and he’s desperate to get it done while he has any credibility left at all. He’s broken from his hard-line stance about timetables for withdrawal, and now he’s just talking about using back-door methods to get modest troop reductions with no firm date at all to end the mission. After Petraeus reports to Congress on the military progress from the surge and on the political reform agreement engineered by Maliki, Reid will have little standing to declare the war “lost” as he did just a few months ago.

As much as I hate to kick old Harry when he’s down…

Who am I fooling? Head on over to The Victory Caucus[2] and sign the Stand by the Mission Petition.[3] And then email everyone you know and ask them to do the same.

Yes, I know. You’re tired of petitions. You wonder whether they do any good? But there is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. We must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.

The man who said that knew a thing or two about fighting. And winning. The time is now.

September 15th grows ever closer. This is a pivotal moment in our nation’s history, ladies and gentlemen. You have not been asked to sacrifice. So many good men have gone now[4].

They watch. And wait. And it is little enough to ask. A moment of your time, no more.

Don’t let them down.