Are Surrender Hawks Now Our Troops' Friends?

The Out of Iraq Caucus, the hard-left, flag-waving (as long as it's white) passle of House Dems (natch!) that want out of Iraq immediately, may be the best friends of right-thinking Americans in coming weeks.

How can that be? How can a group advance our cause if it's got founders like these?

1. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Chair, Co-Founder
2. Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), Co-Founder
3. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Co-Founder
4. Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), Co-Founder
5. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Co-Founder
6. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Co-Founder
7. Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.), Co-Founder
8. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), Co-Founder

Others among the 80 members are Dennis Kucinich, first Muslim in Congress Keith Ellison, Louisiana cold (frozen) cash man William Jefferson and the PA congressman with the most ghetto sounding name on the Hill, Chaka Fattah.

The Out of their Minds ... er, Out of Iraq ... Caucus is responsible for the hard July 1, 2008 deadline for getting out of Iraq. (Handy, isn't' it, how that would supposedly remove Iraq as a campaign issue, much to the relief of any Dem candidate?) The Caucus fought for it, only supported the bill when hard lines were set, and now that they've got what they want, they're sticking to it, even as the competing House and Senate Iraq funding/shut-down measures move to conference.

The Senate bill's more distant pull-out mandate won't synch with the Caucus, many of whom see even July 1 as too late a deadline. Today's LATimes talks about future headaches for Reid and Pelosi as they try to get the Caucus to back off from their hardliner position:

There were already signals of the potential complications that lay ahead, however.

Freshman Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) — a vehement war critic who was among the last liberals to get behind the House measure last week — said Thursday that he would oppose any bill that did not retain the House's firm timelines.

"The timelines and the deadlines are the only thing that got me to support it," said Ellison, who has called for a quick conclusion to the war. "And even then, that was a stretch." ...

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who had urged his colleagues in the Out of Iraq Caucus to back the bill, cautioned that softening the pullout deadlines would risk defections. "If we substantially weaken the timelines, I'd have a real problem with that," he said.

Meanwhile,

Moderate Democratic Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mark Pryor of Arkansas, as well as Republican Sens. Gordon H. Smith of Oregon and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, provided the margin of victory.

Nelson has said he can't support a bill setting a firm deadline for withdrawal.

Pryor may also have concerns about tougher deadlines.

The GOP has the votes to sustain a Bush veto no matter which way the Out of Iraq Coalition feels about what comes out of Conference, but we could use another spectacle of inept Dem Congressional leadership and a heap of pro-terrorist, anti-security quotes from the white flag Dems.

Against the rhetoric of these guys, the rhetoric of Bush sounds very good:

"We stand united. We expect there to be no strings on our commanders."

No one wants war, but even fewer want to lose a war, so the Out of Iraq Coalition stands poised to help America understand which party better represents their interests and the interests of their nation.