As usual, I speak for me only

Let me first be clear on this - John Murtha is NOT the problem with the House Dems. But his post at Huffington Post is not favorable for the proposed House supplemental funding bill. I think it is actually an indictment:

. . . We must insist that before we send our battle weary warriors back into intense combat, we give them the time they need to rest and reconstitute and the time they deserve to spend with family and loved ones.

During this year, the Bush Administration has requested $1 trillion for the Department of Defense. $9 billion a month is being expended for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan . . . Over 3,200 of our sons and daughters have lost their lives in Iraq and close to 25,000 have been wounded, to include thousands of traumatic brain injuries and hundreds of limb amputations.

. . . Meanwhile in Iraq the situation remains dire. Benchmarks established by this Administration are elusive and routinely ignored.

. . . After four years of incompetence and mismanagement, this Administration must come to the realization that Iraq's civil war can only be solved by the Iraqi people and that stability in Iraq can only be accomplished when U.S. and coalition forces end the occupation and redeploy.

Hard then to justify the House bill's funding of the Iraq Debacle through September 2008 in the face of that Representative Murtha. As you say, Bush routinely ignores benchmarks. He'll certainly ignore the House's.