They have gone on the record

From The Washington Post:

Senate Democrats scored a surprise victory yesterday in their bid to force President Bush to end the Iraq war, turning back a Republican amendment that would have struck a troop withdrawal plan from emergency military funding legislation.

The defection of a prominent Republican war critic, Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, sealed the Democrats' win. Hagel, who opposed identical withdrawal language two weeks ago, walked onto the Senate floor an hour before the late-afternoon vote and announced that he would "not support sustaining a flawed and failing policy," adding: "It's now time for the Congress to step forward and establish responsible boundaries and conditions for our continued military involvement in Iraq."

The only thing that surprises me is that the average American seems to understand that setting a withdrawal date is the same thing as surrendering.

The Republican strategy here was to let everyone go on record. The Democrats had to do this to quell the growing rebellion among the moonbat wing of their party, which is the largest and best funded part of the new Democrat coalition. However this leaves them with a major problem with the "Reagan Democrats" and independents who abandoned the Republican Party last November largely over disgust with the way that elected Republicans had abandoned their core conservative principals.

What The Democrats have been forced to do here is remind everyone that they are still the party of McGovern, a fact that was proven when the Party sent faxes and emails to local anti-war groups begging them not to spit on soldiers returning from Iraq. This reminder will be remembered in 2008.