When decadent neoconservatives lose political battles over the war, the results aren’t pretty. The byline here reads Bill Kristol, but the words could very well have come from Shakespeare’s Richard III (like, say, Act V, Scene IV):
John Warner of Virginia, Gordon Smith of Oregon, and Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine are the four Republican senators (in addition to Nebraska’s Chuck Hagel) currently signed on to the Democrats’ anti-surge, anti-Petraeus, anti-troops, and anti-victory resolution.
That’s right: a nonbinding anti-surge resolution is an act against the troops.
Oh, and there’s more. Kristol threatens dire political consequences to all anti-surge GOP senators… challenges from “victory-oriented” Republicans:
In any case, Republican senators up for reelection in 2008 might remember this: The American political system has primaries as well as general elections. In 1978 and 1980, as Reagan conservatives took over the party from détente-establishment types, Reaganite challengers ousted incumbent GOP senators in New Jersey and New York. Surely there are victory-oriented Republicans who might step forward today in Nebraska, Virginia, Oregon, and Maine–and, if necessary, in Tennessee, Minnesota, and New Hampshire–to seek to vindicate the honor, and brighten the future, of the party of Reagan.
Democratic political consultants must be popping champagne corks.
