My disgust with Congress has found new depths. They're buying votes for a troop withdrawal with pork.

[Update a few minutes later]

As Glenn's emailer says, I guess we can now call them the coalition of the bribed.

[Update at noon eastern]

Porkbusters is on the case.

Great idea. Don't look at this defeatist bill, look at the members who are cheating their constituents out of federal pork...er assistance that we will fund by raising taxes...wait, scratch that last part. No one needs to know that yet.
I'll be curious to see how many MSM outlets play down the bribe part and play up the pork that shouldn't be there in the first place. Is it just me or was there admiration for the Dems dirty politics in the tone of that WaPo piece?

This sounds like it will backfire badly. There's no sound strategic reason to set the departure date prior to the 2008 elections nor to impose restrictions on the "Surge". Clearly, the bill will go nowhere since Bush has a veto ready and the Democrats can't promise enough pork to make the bill veto-proof.

I read several news sources and it appears to me to be a nasty undermining of the US military in a time of war. The only mitigating factor being the relatively limited nature of the war. Certainly an odd thing to expend so much political capital on.

Congress must have bought a lot of pork offsets.