Columbia University Democrats

Obama, didn’t you learn anything from Joe Biden or John Kerry’s botched joke about thinking before you speak? Today, Mr. Obama apologized for saying that the lives of American soldiers who have died in Iraq were “wasted.”

Oy.

Gallup has a new poll out showing that the majority of people would like to see a binding timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, just like the Columbia Democrats. Not surprisingly, they also give a decidedly lukewarm response to the idea of a “nonbinding” resolution (feckless is a more appropriate adjective) that effectively does nothing to bring the troops home. Clearly, the American people are sick of useless, symbolic gestures of disapproval from all involved and are ready to see Congress take legislative action to stop the war. A majority has long thought that the war itself was a bad idea; now they want the Democrats in Congress to find a way out, and that is just what they are going to do.

Barack has been catching flack from all sorts of frightened right-wingers since he announced his candidacy officially, but by far the most interesting has just come in from nutty Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Mr. Howard believes that the terrorists should be hoping for an Obama victory (is this sounding familiar?) due to Obama’s plan to withdraw from Iraq.

Mr. Howard is apparently so committed to prolonging the disaster in Mesopotamia that he has agreed to deploy an additional 25,000 troops to Iraq in lieu of the proposed American surge. Just kidding, Australia still has only 1,400 troops in Iraq. I am certainly not one to argue for more feet on the ground in a war that is only hurting all involved, but I also think that these wingnuts should hesitate to criticize sacrifices being made by others as not big enough when they themselves refuse to sacrifice anything. Here is a further illustration of Mr. Howard’s understanding of the intricacies of Middle East politics:

He said that defeat for the US would end hopes for peace in the Palestinian Territories and cause widespread destabilisation in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

UPDATE: Australian Labour Leader Kevin Rudd gives a response to Mr. Howard that many Congressional Democrats would do well to watch over and over.

It’s official…Barack Obama announced today that he is running for president. Welcome to the campaign trail, Barack.

What to do, what to do? Democrats won the elections in the fall largely because of the whole country being so fed up with the hideous Republican strategy for democratizing Iraq. But I am really concerned over the lack of concrete action that has been taken. This past week, the Dems were being a “symbolic, nonbinding resolution” criticizing the White House’s usual lack of responsibility and common sense. Why is it that the Democrats haven’t pushed anything significant through? It’s my sincere hope that next week–during the 36-hours allotted for discussion which allows every single Democrat to talk about Iraq for 5 minutes–some type of conclusion will be reached. There’s not enough time to waffle around on this issue, for every day gets the USA more and more involved in an irreconcilable ethno-religious conflict.

At least the Dems realize that they need to get their act together, with Pelosi stating the obvious:

The people “called for a new direction,” Ms. Pelosi said, “and no place do they want that direction to be more clear than in the war in Iraq.”

But then there’s always the concern of getting whatever materialized resolution through to the executive branch before Bush vetoes it. The Republicans are on to this:

“They are now in the majority,” said Representative Adam H. Putnam of Florida, the chairman of the Republican Conference. “They finally have the opportunity to change policy and they are putting up a sense of the Congress resolution, which is worth about as much as the parchment it’s printed on.”

Welcome to politics, ladies and gentlemen. The sad fact is that anything coming out of the house is unlikely make it all the way though. The Senate seems even more unsure about what to do. Then what’s to do? Hold out on the financing. The power of the purse seems to be the only realistic approach for the time being, as Rep. Nadler highlights,

“The president is not going to listen to anything we have to say,” Mr. Nadler said later in an interview. “There’s nothing we can do to stop him unless it’s the real consequence — the power of the purse.”

And does that really accomplish all that much?