Senate GOP Turns Back Iraq Pullout Plan

The Democrats are blowing it. They've somehow turned the issue that got them control of Congress into an advantage for the Republicans. But it shouldn't be a big surprise. Their current presidential race front runner has a position that reflects the Democrats as a whole - equivocation:

Democrats aggressively challenged President Bush's Iraq policy at both ends of the Capitol on Thursday, gaining House committee approval for a troop withdrawal deadline of Sept. 1, 2008, but suffering defeat in the Senate on a less sweeping plan to end U.S. participation in the war.

Anti-war Democrats prevailed on a near-party line vote of 36-28 in the House Appropriations Committee, brushing aside a week-old veto threat from the administration and overcoming unyielding opposition from Republicans.

Meanwhile, while the Democrats and Republicans debated, Americans died:

Four deaths on Thursday and two on Wednesday have taken the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq to 3,196.

The U.S. military in Iraq says a roadside bomb explosion in eastern Baghdad killed four American soldiers and wounded two others on Thursday.