Hostage situation

Well, he did it like he said he would. President Bush has begun the showdown. Thanks to Krugman, we have a whole new way of looking at this situation. An embattled President Bush, barricaded in the White House, desperately holding the troops hostage to prevent any control over the war from escaping him.

The people are against him.

His own party is distancing themselves from him.

We need Congress to stay strong. We need them to not back down from this juvenile effort to maintain a status quo that has never worked.

Call your Congressmen and tell them not to back down, and that you support a timeline for withdrawal.

Visit Congress.org to get all the info about your representatives/senators.

Krugman brilliantly reframes the debate

Paul Krugman, in his New York Times column [TimesSelect required] today, gives us a brand new perspective on the debate over the Iraq Supplemental Spending Bill, and it is dead on.

There are two ways to describe the confrontation between Congress and the Bush administration over funding for the Iraq surge. You can pretend that it’s a normal political dispute. Or you can see it for what it really is: a hostage situation, in which a beleaguered President Bush, barricaded in the White House, is threatening dire consequences for innocent bystanders — the troops — if his demands aren’t met.

If this were a normal political dispute, Democrats in Congress would clearly hold the upper hand: by a huge margin, Americans say they want a timetable for withdrawal, and by a large margin they also say they trust Congress, not Mr. Bush, to do a better job handling the situation in Iraq.

But this isn’t a normal political dispute. Mr. Bush isn’t really trying to win the argument on the merits. He’s just betting that the people outside the barricade care more than he does about the fate of those innocent bystanders.

…

Confronting Mr. Bush on Iraq has become a patriotic duty.

(emphasis added)

Krugman never ceases to amaze me. He is easily my favorite Times columnist, and if you haven’t checked out his book, it’s a must read if you’re into economics.

[via Crooks and Liars]