The surrender party flexes its . . .

is "muscles" even the right word for the Party of National Weakness?

If anyone is wondering how we are doing in the war in Iraq today's New York Times has the answer:

WASHINGTON, April 23 — Congressional Democrats agreed Monday to ignore President Bush’s veto threat and send him a $124 billion war spending bill that orders the administration to begin pulling troops out of Iraq by Oct. 1.

“On Iraq, the American people want a new direction, and we are providing it,” said Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, a leader of the Congressional negotiators who came to terms on the legislation that has become a test of wills between Mr. Bush and the Democratic majority on Capitol Hill.

The House and Senate are to vote on the agreement and send it to the White House by the end of the week, and Democrats expressed confidence that they could secure narrow approval. But even as they ironed out differences between House and Senate approaches to Iraq policy and cut some spending that has drawn Republican scorn, Democrats acknowledged that the bill would be rejected by the president.

The Democrat congressional leadership must be convinced that we are winning because that is the only explanation for their blind panic. They have positioned themselves so thoroughly as the anti-war party that there is no turning back. The corner they have painted themselves into is very stark; if the United States wins the war in Iraq (and winning is defined as the establishment of a reasonably stable government which secures a greater amount of freedom and prosperity for the Iraqi people than they enjoyed under Saddam Hussein and does not support terrorism) then the Democrat party loses control of the House and Senate until 2012 and the White House until 2016. At the minimum.

The American people are reluctant to send their nation to war, but once troops are on the ground they like to win. Years of distorted reporting by a media which has taken the conscience decision to act as a propaganda service for the enemy has convinced many people that the war is not being won or may even be unwinnable. If a victory is won and the American people give themselves a collective dope slap and exclaim "What were we thinking!?!" this will not go well for the people who have been selling defeatism at wholesale prices.

The American people hate being lied to almost as much as they hate losing.