Brian, the Republican congressman then went on to say, "The word about the war and its progress cannot come from the White House or even you, Mr. President. There is no longer any credibility. It has to come from Gen. Petraeus."

attending the meeting...

   The group of Republicans was led by Reps. Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Charlie Dent (R-PA), and the meeting included Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Karl Rove, and Tony Snow.

This means either adopting Reid-Feingold or something similar, or sending the same bill Bush vetoed back.  But no concessions.

No more blood for Bush.

2.  Charlie Dent doesn't lead a godda*n thing. He and his re-elect campaigns in 04 and 06 welded themselves to Bushie and his war, and made big hay out of how much he supported the Preznit.  A friend knew him in high school. He was a stupid twit of a tool then, and still is now.  There's a German word for folks like him - "musterknabe".  While the dictionary translates it as "prig", that's only in the sense of he's the guy who sucks up to the powers that be by being the boy ("knabe") who's always spending all his time being a perfect model for inspection (in formation or by the teacher)("muster"). It's how he is when dealing with the Admin.

3.  They all can derive some benefit from seeiming independence.
Every one of these 11, with the possible exception of Davis (VA), is on Rover's list of Republican seats vulnerable in 2008.  We know that from the Lurita Davis briefing slides from that "help our people" briefing "on the political landscape" GSA management got.  Davis has aspirations to the Va. Senate seat, so he might seek to run on some independence from Bushie.  Of course, someone should re-run his appearance with Tweety back earlier this year, which Crooks & Liars captured.  You remember - it was the one in which he was saying that Congress should do exactly what the President tells them to do.  Or, his shilling in the recent Waxman hearings on Plame when he spent all his time trying to - I dunno - disprove that the head of the CIA said Plame was covert.  He's a reliable admin talk-hole.  But, for each of these, they will be able to generate some home-town good press, where reporters don't bother to look too hard.

4.  The WH has failed to find a war czar.  So, by default, they've palmed it off onto Petraeus.  But, fer sher, Bushie's washed his hands of this debacle.

5.  Q.  Since when does the civilian leadership take direction from the military?  
A.  In Bushworld, it does.

6.  This is just a reflection of the WH (and particularly Bush's and Rover's) "utter contempt for Congress". Not my quote - that's from Scarborough in his tryout for the Imus slot on MSNBC this AM.  He was remarking on the difference between the Clinton admin and the current, that Clinton recognized Congress had its role and he his, while Bush and Rove have only contempt for Congress.  Bushie's just using these folks to take the heat.

Remembering the selling of lunatic judges, I've got a bad feeling about this.

BREAKING: Conservative Dems expected to vote with GOP to give Bush unfettered blank check on Iraq tomorrow  

I just heard from an impeccable source that there is serious concern on the Hill that conservative Democrats in the House will vote with the Republicans to strip any and all restrictions from the Iraq supplemental tomorrow, effectively giving Bush all the money he wants with no restrictions and no effort to hold either him or the Iraq government accountable for anything....

Yes, while the Republican leaders of the House and Senate are publicly claiming that they won't give Bush a blank check, they're maneuvering behind the scenes to do just that. And while Republican members of Congress are supposedly laying down the law for Bush in private meetings, on the House floor they're going to give Bush everything he wants and needs to continue the war indefinitely.
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