Buying Time

Andrew Sullivan-- who, like Agent Mulder, wants to believe-- still holds on to the popular media belief that the Republican party is about six months away from bailing on President Bush and the war. Ignoring the more obvious fact that they've been saying that for almost a year now, the fact is that if that was going to happen, it would've been after the midterm election and/or after the President told the Baker-Hamilton commission to fuck off.

The GOP has wrapped themselves in this war and will have a tough time untangling themselves without exposing their complicity and failures. Not to mention that their base believes this to be the war to end all wars-- a belief fueled by years of jingoistic GOP rhetoric-- and will not take kindly to such a betrayal.

I'm betting that the Republicans are all in, at least until after the primaries in spring 2008. And, even then, they won't run against the war, they'll just attempt to distance themselves from it, while simultaneously blaming Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Jack Murtha, and George Soros (and hell, anyone to the left of Chuck Hagel) of 'losing' it for us.

Let us also not forget that the facts continue to make clear that this current incarnation of the war is as much a farce as all the others. The President's office has quietly acknowledged that they won't even try to assess the surge until at least September and they've made clear also that they expect nothing of the Maliki government. The 'surge' accomplished exactly what the President wanted it to... it buys him time so that he can achieve his officially-stated goal of passing his disaster off to the next president.

The President remains confident he can continue to buy time until 2009. For now, the Republicans share that confidence. I don't see that changing anytime soon; they've invested too much in this for self-correction.