Greg Sargent flags this paragraph from today’s Post
Moreover, Pelosi told her colleagues that if it appears likely that Bush wants to take the country to war against Iran, the House would take up a bill to deny him the authority to do so, according to Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly.
We touched on this approach a bit yesterday, linking to a James Fallows’ piece in The Atlantic.
Here’s the problem with Pelosi’s approach. Waiting to act until war with Iran “appears likely” strikes me as politically unfeasible.
As Josh has sketched out, there are any number of ways for military confrontation with Iran to evolve, and none of them plausibly involves the President announcing his intentions in advance in an address from the Oval Office. Rather, there will be an incident (some would say, “incident”) which becomes the justification or the tripwire, call it what you will, for U.S. military action.
Pelosi seems to be saying that only then will Democrats throw themselves in front of the train to keep it from leaving the station. Too late. That’s politically untenable, and the train will roll right over Democrats.
