Friends and Allies of Rome: 41 is the magic number

I'm going to be short, sweet, and to the point. Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party. For all those that are still "recovering" from the immigration debacle, drop the footrest on the recliner because your country needs you again.

Harry Reid and the Democrats, along with a few off-the-reservation round-heel Republicans, are introducing a debate to the Senate regarding a withdrawal from Iraq. They aren't patient enough to wait for General Petreus's report in September. They want to force the president's hand now. Yesterday afternoon, my lovely and brillaint wife touched on the New York Times story that alludes to something coming out of the White House that vaguely resembles capitulation. Tony Snow is flatly denying this allegation, claiming that the president has no intention of allowing the Senate to dictate a withdrawal table to the president. Let's hope that's so.

But we need 41 Senators -- be they Republican or Democrat -- to stop this nonsense. The only way we're going to get that is if we raise enough of a stink about this debate. So, just like with the immigration debate, it's time for the nation to get a little pi$$ed. 202-225-3121 -- start with the round-heel caucus in the GOP. Call Domenici, call Lugar, call Alexander, call Voinovich. Let them know that their jobs are in jeopardy if they sign onto this nutter idea.

The president is commander-in-chief of the military. This war isn't as bad as the retreatists proclaim it to be, and it speaks volumes about the intelligence and sanity of people like Harry Reid who vote to approve General David Petreaus to take over the commend of US forces in Iraq, but then says he won't believe what the man reports to the Congress. Either Harry Reid is a moron, or he's senile. Either way, he's wrong. So are the GOPers that are jumping on his coattails with a gross and incorrect reading of the latest poll numbers.

We don't buy those numbers, and I'm guessing a fair majority of the country doesn't buy them either. I'm positive -- I'd wager my reputation on this boast -- that the majority of the country believes in the mission our troops are carrying out, and that they want our troops to succeed. Success isn't going to be defined or dictated by the cut-and-runners in the Senate. It's defined by those on the ground dealing with our enemy there. Hell, these guys are already ignoring the success that's being reported by people like Michael Yon, Bill Roggio, and Michael Totten. These guys have been there. They've seen that the surge is working, and we're winning.

The Senate doesn't see it. 202-225-3121 -- Make them see it. We need forty-one, folks. Let's get those guys to see the light, and stop this nonsense. The more the politicians stick their nose in the middle of this war, the worse things will get. We don't need micomanaging of the war. We need a leader. We have him. He's the president, and he makes the call, not the Senate. Get on the phones, and raise some Hell. We'll be starting that first thing tomorrow morning.

Publius II

UPDATE -- The Editors at National Review have put totgether a piece urging the round-heeled ones not to panic:

Panics have a logic of their own. Once they ripple through a crowd, all reason is discarded. The Senate Republican caucus is in a panic at the moment, elbowing one another aside to follow Dick Lugar in calling for a change of strategy in the Iraq War.

They are vague on what exactly that new strategy should be, but the thrust of it is that we need to begin drawing down troops in Iraq sooner rather than later. They aren’t ready to endorse Democratic legislation explicitly calling for immediate withdrawals yet, but many of them — including last week’s star dissident Republican, Sen. Pete Domenici — are endorsing the Salazar-Alexander bill to write into law the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group and end our combat role in Iraq by the end of March 2008.

Since that bill doesn’t seem likely to win liberal support in the Senate in the near term, it probably won’t win a majority, and is a safe place for nervous Republicans to park their support without yet forcing Bush’s hand. But the dynamic created by the break with the president has a momentum of its own, and the New York Times reported Monday that forces within the administration are considering ways to appease the panicked senators by offering a White House drawdown plan. This would be a catastrophic mistake.

We trust that President Bush knows that he cannot honorably discard the surge that he ordered and that has only recently been fully implemented. Only a few days ago, in a July Fourth speech, he said that the Iraq War would require still “more patience, more courage, and more sacrifice.” Unfortunately, that is true. Even in his reduced political state, Bush is commander in chief, and as long as he holds firm, it will be difficult for Congress to force him to withdraw troops.

According to the interview that Hugh Hewitt had with Bill Kristol yesterday, the forces that have the round-heels in the White House don't include the president, but they do include a couple of key people:

HH: Now who in the White House…do we have an understanding of who it is that has got the round heels?

BK: I think Secretary Gates has not been helpful in his comments, the Secretary of Defense. He’s not in the White House. Steve Hadley has to broker an inter-agency, National Security Advisor, has to broker an inter-agency process, and I wouldn’t say that Condi Rice, though I personally like her, has exactly been out there beating the drums to support General Petraeus. So I think, actually, some of the President’s people like Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, I think, have more of a sense of what’s at stake here. But I think some of these foreign policy guys talk themselves into an overly sophisticated view of well, we have to kind of give Lugar something to bring him back on board. And they don’t understand the importance of a clear, solid message to the country about what the President stands for, and really what the Republican Party stands for. I mean, it’s a disgrace in the first place to think of abandoning a key military mission because your own polls in 2008, 18 months before the election, are a little wavering, which is the case with Norm Coleman in Minnesota, or Domenici in New Mexico. That’s a disgrace.

Not only should you be calling the Senate, but get a hold of the White House, as well, and tell the president to stay steadfast in the war.

Publius II