With less than a day to go before a scheduled vote on funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan takes place, the House Democratic leadership is scrambling to avoid an embarrassing defeat – largely as a result of a revolt by their far left wing:

One of the Democrats’ chief designated vote counters, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), is actively working against the Iraq war spending bill. The leadership’s senior chief deputy whip, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), spoke passionately against it on the House floor. And one of the whip organization’s regional representatives, Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), is implacably opposed.

The disarray in the House whipping operation ahead of tomorrow’s expected vote on the bill is putting a harsh spotlight on House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), who has the task of rounding up the 218 votes needed to pass the $124 billion measure, but who has not even kept his organization in line.

“There’s only one test, and that will be whether we get 218 on the board on Thursday,” said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), who predicted that Clyburn will come through with the votes.

The problem for the far left Democrats is that by their lights, we’re not surrendering fast enough. While the measure calls for all American combat troops out of Iraq by the end of August next year regardless of the situation on the ground, the far left is feeling the pressure from the netnuts who are agitating for an end to the war now, right now, right this minute:

But Lewis has not been silent. In a speech Monday night on the House floor, he made his case as convincingly as he could.

“As a nation, can we hear the words of Gandhi, so simple, so true—that it’s either nonviolence or nonexistence? Can we hear the words of Martin Luther King Jr., saying that we must learn to live together as brothers and sisters or perish as fools?” Lewis asked. “Tonight, I must make it plain and clear, that as a human being, as a citizen of the world, as a citizen of America, as a member of Congress, and as an individual committed to a world at peace with itself, I will not and cannot vote for another dollar or another dime to support this war.”

That’s the spirit, Representative Lewis! Immediate and unconditional surrender. Perhaps we should start calling you “U.S. Lewis?”

The whips not only have problems with their comrades on the left, there are also quite a few Blue Dog Democrats who are uneasy about starting down the road of defunding the war while our troops are in the field:

Tanner, the Blue Dog representative on the chief deputy whip’s team, had been undecided until yesterday morning. Now that he is on board, he hastened to add that he is not about to start leaning on his Blue Dog colleagues. “I don’t ask people to vote on the leadership’s behalf, particularly on a vote like this,” he said.

Kristie Greco, a spokeswoman for Clyburn, said the Democrats’ whip organization is broad and diverse, precisely so that a few defections over policy would not affect the vote-counting operation. The days of lock-step discipline under the threat of retribution went out with the Republican majority, she said.

Spoken like a true loser, Kristie. It appears that the Democrats might try to turn their legislative defeat into a public relations triumph, highlighting their incompetence by comparing their failed efforts to whip the members into line with the Republican’s success on numerous issues. After all, does it really matter how the job gets done just as long as the desired result is achieved? The threats of retribution against recalcitrant Republicans didn’t lead to any of them defecting to the Democrats and until 2006, kept them in the majority. Of course, some of the underhanded parliamentary tricks used by the GOP House leadership helped in that regard. But the fact is, when push came to shove, the GOP whip operation almost always delivered.

Ultimately, competence in leadership is judged by how well the majority functions when confronted with the biggest issues of the day. It’s easy to get a majority for a non-binding resolution expressing opposition to the war. But when the leadership gets down to brass tacks on actually what terms of surrender they wish to offer the insurgents and al-Qaeda in Iraq, their left wing balks because we don’t drop our weapons and flee while the conservatives are wary that voting for any measure that contains a timetable may associate them with the crazies in their party.

If the Republicans were smart (a big “if”), they would allow the Democrats the honor of voting for a date certain to celebrate al-Qaeda’s victory. Otherwise, they may find themselves tarred with the same broad brush used to paint the Democrats as the defeatists they truly are.

UPDATE

According to The Victory Caucus, the Dems are buying the votes they need by spreading around some pork:

Dems’ seem to have decided that their Slow Bleed strategy (v.018) won’t actually have a chance of passing on its own merits, and so they need to play Let’s Make A Deal. In other words: find a bunch of morally confused Congresscritters who think their districts absolutely must have some nice juicy pork projects, and bring ‘em the bacon, baby!

It’s a great plan, really, except for the fact that it assumes that we’re still stuck somewhere in the 1970’s and such deals can be made in secret between chummy confederates wearing disturbingly wide-collared suits made entirely of synthetic fabrics while boogying down to Disco Inferno on the old 8-track. Turns out that here in Two-Thousand-And-Seven, such an approach works: not so much.

Why? Because of you, silly! The empowered citizen, given the ability by these wonderful Internets to actually read the actual words of the actual bills that your elected Representatives are actually planning on actually passing in your name. You can help us point the spotlight on the deals that are being made with this “emergency” spending bill. You can highlight the shady bargains being made by the Democratic leadership to help put lipstick on the pork-laden pig that this vitally important bill to fund our troops in harm’s way has become.

The guys over at VC need your help in identifying every piece of pork going into this supplemental spending bill. Go to the link above and follow their instructions.