Senate Republicans stood united against an attempt by Democrats to undercut General Petraeus in Iraq and set a deadline for withdrawal of American troops by March of 2008 by defeating an amendment to the war appropriations bill sponsored by Majority Leader Harry Reid:

It took weeks for the Senate to agree to hold a formal debate on Democratic calls for a change in war policy, and by the time it occurred, the result was utterly predictable. So much so that Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who is running for the White House in 2008, skipped the vote to campaign in Iowa.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky led the opposition to the measure.

“This is a dangerous piece of legislation. It is constitutionally dubious and it would authorize a scattered band of United States senators to tie the hand” of the commander in chief, he said.

McConnell said it would be “absolutely fatal” to the mission of U.S. troops in Iraq.

Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada disputed that. “Five years of war, the president’s current approach in Iraq is not working. The country is closer to chaos than stability. U.S. troops are policing a civil war, not hunting and killing the terrorists who attacked America on 9/11.”

Someone should tell Harry to read the papers. He may discover that yes indeed, we are fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq (along with Sunni insurgents and Shia radicals) and that we are killing them wholesale. And while I don’t buy into the idea that “fighting them there means we don’t have to fight them here,” I think it is safe to say that killing radical jihadis hell bent on killing Americans is a damn fine thing to do while we’re in Iraq trying to bring order out of chaos and well worth our money, time, and effort.

Hell, Harry! Even Andrew Sullivan is saying good things about Iraq:

This isn’t normality; the carnage is still awful. But it’s less awful than recently. If Petraeus continues to keep this momentum going, the debate about staying in Iraq may change one more time. (Memo to self: I wonder what would have happened if a sane counter-insurgency strategy had been implemented with sufficient troops in 2003?)

Well. . . mostly good things. And Andrew mentions the 800 pound gorilla in the room for Democrats:

What happens if by some miracle (and the brilliant performance of our troops) that the political and the military situation changes dramatically for the better over the next 6-9 months?

The whole point of the surge, of course, is that the two are inexorably linked; that political progress on oil revenue sharing, reconciliation, constitutional changes, and the like is tied directly to restoring hope to the people that the government is competent enough to reasonably protect them and that the shattered body politic can start the rebuilding process only when people feel secure enough to resume some kind of normal living.

With word that the Mahdis may be willing to lay down their arms (most of them anyway) and the continued encouraging news that tribal leaders in Anbar province are fighting against Sunni insurgents and al Qaeda terrorists, at least some of the political benchmarks so beloved of the Democrats in Congress are already being met. In fact, the Democrats are in danger of codifying benchmarks that will be irrelevant by the time any Iraq legislation is passed.

It would make the Democrats look pretty silly if they demand the Iraqi government pass a law that would share the oil revenue as a the price of continued American involvement only to have that law already passed by the time the Democrats get their act together and decide exactly how they want to surrender to the jihadis.

Of course, the House is another story. The Appropriations Committee passed their timetable amendment - even though few are exactly sure how it works or can coherently explain it to the American people. And given their solid majority in the House, Democrats should be able to pass the measure. This is after giving their far left wing the opportunity to weep and wail about how the measure doesn’t go far enough and that if it were up to them, we’d be out of Iraq in 90 days. This is all the loons needed - just a little attention and the opportunity to strike a dramatic pose for their netnut fans.

The fact that any such measure is doomed in the Senate won’t matter. The House Democrats will be on record telling the insurgents and militia members who are currently in hiding to hold on for just a little while longer. Democrats are eventually coming to their rescue.