Lately, we have all seen a great deal of antagonism.  There's anger from the supporters of each Democratic candidate against each other.  There's anger against Bush (and plenty of it).  There's anger against greedy corporations.  There's anger against old-fashioned news organizations.  Most of the diaries I have been reading have been based around attacking what is perceived as negative or promoting a position based on what it's not.

My friends, this is not what the Democratic party is for.

According to the most recent CNN poll, 58% of Americans believe we should withdraw all it's troops from Iraq immediately or within one year.  According to the same poll, 52% of Americans believe that Congress should vote to block the government from spending money to send additional troops to Iraq.  These are fairly typical numbers that come up in recent polls, they are nothing unusual.  Yet, despite this, Congress isn't even talking about withdrawing all troops.  The current "withdrawl" plans would only affect "combat" troops, even if they weren't watered down by Republicans.  No one in Congress is talking about abandoning our superbases, though a majority of Americans want to give them up.  Even in the House of Representatives, the chamber intended to be most responsive to the wishes of the Public, our representatives are blatantly ignoring our demands.

Lately, there's been a lot of discussion about Congress' ability to control Bush and his insane desire to throw ever more young men and women into body bags in Iraq.  Many options are discussed, but fundamentally people don't seem to have much hope that Bush would obey any laws that Congress passes.  It seems that any solution proposed is denounced by pointing out that Bush will ignore it.  Often, this is used as justification for impeachment, because Bush doesn't leave us any other options.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for impeachment (immediately, if not sooner).  However, in my opinion, all the discussion so far has focused on a narrow range of possibilities: defund the troops, place a cap on troop numbers in Iraq.  Those are fine possibilities, but as everyone knows it leaves Democrats vulnerable to "not supporting the troops" attacks.  Yet, there are many other options that could be used to pressure Bush without placing a single soldier in more harm than he already is in.  The Power of the Purse is far more powerful than most people seem to understand.

 I have no doubts that none of these ideas would even make it to committee.  I merely present them to show the possibilities of what could be possible if we had a Congress capable of leadership and daring.