After hinting at it for weeks, it looks like Democrats won’t be cutting off funding for our troops in Iraq.

Jan. 18, 2007 — There may be a growing battle between Congress and the president over the Iraq War strategy, but new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she won’t block funding for additional troops.

Pelosi’s position, revealed in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer, came a day after a group of senators announced a bipartisan resolution condemning the Bush administration’s plan to increase U.S. forces in Iraq by more than 20,000 troops.

While the Senate resolution would be non-binding, it would send a message to the president, and at least a dozen Republican senators have already offered their support.

I sort of saw this coming.  The Democrats don’t want to take a position on the surge of troops in Iraq.  If they come out for it (or any policy that commits us to winning in Iraq instead of retreating) they antagonize their far-left, anti-war base.  If they come out too strongly against it they run the risk of looking like fools should the strategy pay off (though you can bet their allies in the media will be doing the best to make it look like a failure).  So what they do instead is half and half.  They’ll issue a nastily-worded though non-binding resolution opposing the surge while simultaneously appropriating all the funds the President needs to carry out his policies.

They’re straddling the fence.  If the surge works they can pat themselves on the back for funding it.  If it doesn’t they can scream to the high heavens about how they warned the President.  Which isn’t exactly what you’d call principled leadership but it is a ploy that will probably work out well for them politically.  Which is all that really matters to these clowns.