Liberals Finally Find Their Voice on Iraq... Thank You, Mr. Gallup

Talk about shitty timing. Tom Friedman’s take that "liberals don’t want to talk about Iraq" appeared at precisely the moment when liberals have begun to find their voice on Iraq -- although they are far from singing from the same hymnbook. In fact, there are now so many proposals and resolutions flying around the Hill calling on Bush, at a minimum, to begin laying the groundwork for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, that you can’t tell the players without a program. Here’s a primer:

In the Senate, Russ Feingold’s resolution calls on Bush to produce a timetable for bringing our troops home. Barbara Boxer has signed on; Lincoln Chafee is thinking about it.

In the House, the bipartisan "Homeward Bound" resolution -- co-sponsored by Dems Lynn Woolsey, Dennis Kucinich, Neil Abercrombie, Marty Meehan, and Repubs Walter Jones and Ron Paul -- sets a specific date for getting out (October 1, 2006 -- mark it on your calendar). This resolution is much more specific than the sense of Congress amendment Woolsey attached to the Defense spending bill in May, which was voted down.

Maxine Waters, Charlie Rangel, John Lewis and 38 other House members have formed the "Out of Iraq Congressional Caucus" whose "sole purpose is to be the main agitators in the movement to bring our troops home..."

And then there's Nancy Pelosi's proposal. Is there ever. Unlike Homeward Bound or the Feingold resolution, Pelosi is offering up a tepid piece of legislative mush that will, in no uncertain terms, force the president to... uh, well, actually not much. The Pelosi measure simply directs Bush to give Congress a "report on a strategy for success in Iraq". Whatever the hell that means. Basically, the White House would be called on to set forth the criteria by which it should be judged... Wow, you sure you want to set the bar that high, Nancy?

Pelosi has turned up the rhetoric, however... going from stone silence on the subject to a full-throated "It's time for the House to go on record about this." About what? About the need to have a report laying out what the meaning of "success" in Iraq is? That’s a tougher task than ferreting out what the definition of "is" is.

In any case, the tide has clearly turned among liberals. The question is why? Were they waiting for the 1,714th U.S. soldier to die? Or might it have something to do with the latest poll numbers, showing nearly six in 10 people want us to start bringing the troops home.

My buddy Harry Shearer is right: I hate polls as much as he does. Even when they force our political leaders to finally do the right thing -- as opposed to voting for the war, voting for yet another mega-billion dollar no-accountability-attached war appropriation, or just zipping their lips on the subject. Sure, this time polls pushed Democrats in the right direction... but that’s no way to run a party -- or a country.