My thoughts on the Democrats' cave last week on the war funding bill are a little more complicated than this cartoon suggests, though it reflects my overall belief that the vote was politically disastrous. Instead of being overcautious about seeming too forceful, the Dems need to start worrying about appearing too weak; and that is exactly how they came off by giving Bush a blank check to continue the Iraq gorefest until September. More than anything, Americans want leaders with convictions. For better or worse, it matters less what those convictions are than the strength of those convictions.

I find myself more perplexed than anything. What the hell were they thinking? It almost seems like there has to be more to the story than what we know. The thing that confused me most was that my own Senator, Jim Webb, voted for passage -- and not only has he opposed the war from the beginning, but he has a son in Iraq. More than anyone, he doesn't have to worry about accusations of "not supporting the troops." An excerpt of his statement on the bill:

I worked very hard to try to persuade the Democratic leadership to include clear, restrictive language in this Supplemental. I did not succeed, and was disappointed in many of the provisions that remained. However, we are working under the reality that, on the issue of Iraq, this Senate does not have a Democratic majority. From the outset, we are a minority of 49, given Senator Lieberman's position on the war. This reality dictates our conduct.

The fact that he mentions Lieberman intrigues me, because I was just speculating that that obnoxious tit could be at the center of all of this. He recently backed away from his earlier promise not to go Republican, which would end the Dems' control of the Senate. Given Webb's statement, I can't help but think Lieberman factored in more heavily than most reporting on the bill suggests.

Personally, I was more upset when the Dems declined to filibuster radical wackadoo Alito, because I think the consequences of having him on the Supreme Court for the next three decades could be worse than a few extra months of involvement in Iraq, as bad as that will be. But they still deserve a kick in the pants.