The Ballad of John and Nancy

In November, 2005, the White House was prepared to release an updated National Strategy for Victory in Iraq, spelling strategies for accomplishing short, medium, and long-term goals in the political, economic, and military/security "tracks" to that victory. The finished product could hardly be deemed an overly positive look at the situation "on the ground". In fact, it includes a sobering "laundry list" of the challenges faced and frankly acknowledges that victory will take years. The document as a whole would be an attempt to explain to Americans exactly how "victory" in Iraq was defined, and the plan for achieving it.

Democrats would have to scramble to provide some political theater to ensure that "plan" would never receive any attention from the public or the media. It wouldn't take much - the media would be perfectly willing to oblige. Marine Veteran John "Jack" Murtha was chosen to perform as ringmaster in that circus. From the November 28, 2005 issue of Newsweek:

Which was precisely what the Democratic leadership wanted Murtha to do. A close ally, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, was anxious to open a second axis of attack on Iraq—and was aware of his growing antagonism toward the war. The two met and agreed that he would make his case in private to the party conference. After that, on his own, he would introduce a resolution calling for withdrawal of troops from Iraq "at the earliest practicable date."

I believe before the Iraqi elections, scheduled for mid December, the Iraqi people and the emerging government must be put on notice that the United States will immediately redeploy.
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Our military has done everything that has been asked of them, the U.S. can not accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily. IT IS TIME TO BRING THEM HOME.

One that was destroyed almost immediately when congressional Republicans called the bluff:

GOP leaders hastily scheduled a vote on a measure to require the Bush administration to bring the troops home now, an idea proposed Thursday by Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.). The Republican-proposed measure was rejected 403 to 3, a result that surprised no one.

The idea was to force Democrats to go on the record on a proposal that the administration says would be equivalent to surrender. Recognizing a political trap, most Democrats -- including Murtha -- said from the start they would vote no.

WASHINGTON Nov 30, 2005 (AP)— House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday embraced a call by a prominent member of her rank-and-file to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, two weeks after she declined to endorse it.

"We should follow the lead of Congressman John Murtha, who has put forth a plan to make American safer, to make our military stronger and to make Iraq more stable," Pelosi said. "That is what the American people and our troops deserve."

Pelosi, D-Calif., said she wouldn't call for a party caucus position on the plan by the Pennsylvania Democrat because "a vote on the war is an individual vote."

Nevertheless, she said: "I believe that a majority of our caucus clearly supports Mr. Murtha."

Lots of water under the bridge since then, but it shouldn't surprise anyone that Ms Pelosi threw her support behind Mr Murtha in the recent Democratic House leadership races. She owed him, plain and simple.

But it also surprises me not one bit that his fellow congressmen denied him the brass ring. When it comes to actual voting they've never much been on his side.