Cut and Run Resolution Fails 403-3

Spinelessness, it seems, is not contained to military policy.

[Blogger's note:  I really picked the wrong day to be traveling.  My apologies for being completely out of range during today's excitement.  If you also happened to be on an airplane, in a sensory deprivation chamber, wedged in a 10,000' crevice, or otherwise cut off from the world, you may want to peruse the following coverage from bloggers that were not surprisingly way on the ball today.]

Hugh Hewitt
Matt Margolis
Michelle Malkin
Glenn Reynolds
The Political Teen
Stop the ACLU

When John Murtha grandstood for the media Thursday and called for immediate  withdrawal from Iraq, he probably didn't expect Republicans to oblige him in a vote.  But that's exactly what happened, and with predictable results.

Slightly less predictable was the increasingly immediate, seemingly instinctive spin that Democratic House leadership put on the debacle (via Drudge):

Democrats said it was a political stunt and quickly decided to vote against it in an attempt to drain it of significance.

"A disgrace," declared House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "The rankest of politics and the absence of any sense of shame," added Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat.

Yes, there was an element of stunt involved here.  On both sides.  But the Republican stunt was simply to accede Murtha's stated (thus far loudly lauded) call for such a vote.  Was the tenor of media coverage we've seen of John Murtha lately in keeping with a legislator espousing policy so radical he could only sell it to 3 of his 434 colleagues?

Nancy, Steny, when you bluff and get called on it, you can't lash out at the bluff caller simply for exposing the emptiness and indefensibility of your position.

Elsewhere, John Kerry was doing a little grandstanding of his own, saying he "won't stand for the swift-boating" of Murtha, a fellow Vietnam veteran.

*Sheesh*  It's not always about you, John.

Today's impromptu tempest makes me wonder about the shrewdness of the modern American Democratic legislator.  First, they were hoodwinked by an inept and dimwitted President into casting faulty and regrettable votes in favor of the Iraq war.  And now, Denny Hastert managed to hornswoggle them into this awkward embarrassment.

Hey Democratic leadership, what's this spot on your tie?

Elsewhere: Final Vote Results of Roll Call 608