For all the talk from Republican senators about their willingness to embrace a significant change in war policy, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is going to give them a chance to put their votes where their mouths are.

Reid acknowledged that Senate Dems “haven’t done enough” to oppose the president’s policy, but appears anxious to correct the caucus’ shortcomings.

Sensing momentum from the new Republican defections, Mr. Reid and other leading Democrats intend to force a series of votes over the next two weeks on proposals to withdraw troops and limit spending. Democrats are increasingly confident they can assemble majority opposition to administration policies. […]

In the first round of debates about the war, there was Democratic anxiety about appearing unsupportive of the troops, and Mr. Reid sought to keep a tighter rein on his colleagues who were pushing for the strongest antiwar legislation. But in the shifting environment, Democrats are newly emboldened.

Mr. Reid said he now saw ending the war as a moral duty, and even if the Senate again falls short, he said, he would turn again and again to Iraq until either the president relents or enough Republicans join Democrats to overrule Mr. Bush.

“I think that each time these people vote to continue what’s going on in Iraq it is a bad, bad move for them and a worse move for our country,” Mr. Reid said.

The NYT article notes the fragility of the Democratic majority on Iraq. Reid starts with a 51-seat majority, which drops to 50 with Sen. Tim Johnson’s (D-S.D.) health trouble, and drops again to 49 with Joe Lieberman’s tendency to be, well, Joe Lieberman.

But Reid seems to believe the wind’s at his back, and with Republicans anxious to distance themselves from failure, there’s a growing optimism that Defense appropriations will be a turning point.

We’ll see. Gamblers are yet to lose money betting on Republican lawmakers sticking with the Bush White House, no matter how ridiculous it appears. But with Reid perceiving this struggle, apparently for the first time, as a moral imperative, the conditions seem encouraging.

In May, the party capitulated when push came to shove. At a minimum, the caucus appears a lot less likely back down now.

We were just putting together our weekly Sunday show round-up which will post first thing tomorrow morning. But there was one comment so transcendently stupid we decided it deserved its own special clip.

Here’s Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT), one-time boss of David Safavian, explaining that throwing the book at Scooter Libby has helped heal the nation of the damage caused when Bill Clinton wasn’t prosecuted for perjury and obstruction …

I’m not usually one for wanting to see people hauled off to the slammer for refusing to do this or that. But please, please haul Sara Taylor off to the slammer.

Taylor, you may know, is the former White House political director. She has been subpoenaed to testify on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. And she claims she’s quite willing to do so as she’s done nothing wrong. But the White House is urging her to ignore the subpoena. And since, in the words of Taylor’s lawyer, the president is “a person whom [Taylor] admires and for whom she has worked tirelessly for years”, she doesn’t want to testify and thinks she shouldn’t have to.

Pleading the fifth is on the books. Various privileges, though most are bogus, can be asserted and litigated. But being a member of the Bush personality cult just isn’t a reason to refuse to testify.

Not yet at least.

White House officials debating whether to announce “intention” to begin withdrawal from Iraq.

Today’s Must Read: Libby, the U.S. attorney firings, warrantless wiretapping… a Justice Department lawyer tells why “I have never been as ashamed of the department and government that I serve as I am at this time.”

Cindy Sheehan to run against Nancy Pelosi if she doesn’t move to impeach Bush in next two weeks. That and other political news of the day in today’s Election Central Morning Roundup.

In today’s Sunday Show Roundup episode of TPMtv, we look at what Patrick Fitzgerald said and then how it got spun by the professional spinners …

White House makes it official: executive privilege invoked on any White House aides testifying in US Attorney scandal.

Must be pretty juicy stuff.

Update: Some highlights from the White House’s letter, which asks the Democrats to be nicer.

With Act II of the Democratic Congress’ efforts to end the Iraq War set to begin in earnest today, all the various legislative measures Dems are planning can seem bewilderingly complex.

So Spencer Ackerman has drawn up a handy guide to all the Dem initiatives being considered. Check it out.

Mitt Romney has a little fun badly distorting some recent Hillary remarks in order to claim she’s a Marxist.