WASHINGTON (AP) - House Republicans, seeing an opportunity, maneuvered for a quick vote and swift rejection Friday of a Democratic lawmaker's call for an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq.
"We want to make sure that we support our troops that are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. "We will not retreat."
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California had no immediate reaction to the idea of a quick vote before Congress leaves Washington for two weeks.
GOP leaders decided to act little more than 24 hours after Rep. John Murtha, a hawkish Democrat with close ties to the military, said the time had come to pull out the troops.
No more wishy-washy stuff. You are either behind the war, or you are against it.
And, of course, the media is in spin mode already.
By forcing the issue to a vote, Republicans placed many Democrats in a politically unappealing position - whether to side with Murtha and expose themselves to attacks from the White House and congressional Republicans, or whether to oppose him and risk angering the voters that polls show want an end to the conflict.
If the voters are really behind an immediate end to the war in Iraq why would the Democrats care about angering the White House?
Democrats have gotten themselves stuck in a wringer on the Iraq war. They have gone so far down the anti-war road that at this point it would be politically devastating for their to be victory in Iraq. I don't think any of them are actively rooting for our defeat in Iraq, but success in our mission there is no longer suitable for their political ends.