This is one reason why I want to find a wall to bash my head against whenever I go to major democratic-leaning liberal blogs nowadays:

House Democrats don’t need the Senate to change course on Iraq. They don’t need to pass Bush’s war funding requests. They can sit on them until Bush is forced to negotiate in good faith.

They just don’t get it. Bush will never, never, never, never, never, ever negotiate in good faith because he doesn’t have to. He’s not up for re-election, he doesn’t care what happens to Republican members of congress, and he’s well aware that if Congress just refuses to past funding, that Congress is the one who is going to get the blame.

I’ve pointed it out over and over again but they just don’t get it. They think that anything the democrats do to “look tough” on Iraq will impress voters no matter what it is, but they either don’t get, or have drunk too much of their own kool-aid and actually believe that the public doesn’t see funding as a sacred cow.

Let’s take a trip down polling lane shall we?

Yes, the cut-off funding (or at the least hold it hostage) crowd has been crowing about the poll by ABC News/Washington Post showing that 67% want the $190 billion request for the war reduced (hell, I want it reduced). What they neglect to mention is that only 3% – yes 3% – said that the Congress shouldn’t approve any of it. That just shows how pathetically small the “cut off funding” movement is, and they all seem to live on the liberal blogs.

Looking back in the summer, we saw numbers like this:

CBS News/New York Times Poll. July 9-17, 2007 (May 18-23):

Allow All Funding – 28% (15%)
Set Timetable – 61% (69%)
Block All Funding – 8% (13%)

SA Today/Gallup Poll. June 1-3, 2007:

Thinking now specifically about how candidates’ positions on the war in Iraq would affect your vote, would you be more likely or less likely to vote for a presidential candidate who…Supports legislation that would cut off funding for the war in Iraq

More Likely – 33%
Less Likely – 60%

CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll. May 4-6, 2007:

“One proposal would not provide additional funds for U.S. troops in Iraq and would require the U.S. to withdraw all its troops by March 2008. Would you favor or oppose that bill?”

Favor – 39%
Oppose – 60%

“Who do you think is MORE responsible for the fact that the U.S. troops currently in Iraq have not yet received additional funds: President Bush, because he vetoed the Iraq funding bill passed by Congress, OR, the Democrats in Congress, because they passed an Iraq funding bill that they knew Bush would veto?”

Bush – 34%
Congress – 44%
Both – 14%

As one can see, poll after poll after poll show that people don’t want defunding, and as much as liberals keep saying that people will “come around” or that “how they ask the question” are making the numbers smaller than they actually, I’ve never seen a significant number of people be in favor of defunding.

And why I think Bush will never negotiate is that last poll – 58% felt that Congress was fully or partly responsible for Bush’s veto (or, more correctly, that they didn’t pass a bill that he wouldn’t veto). Why would that change now, especially since there has been no movement (and possibly even a regression) on the idea that Congress should just withhold funding.

As I’ve long said, this is probably going to be all or nothing. Either Congress will refuse to fund, or they’ll have to give in to Bush, because Bush feels – and I think legitimately so – that he can win a showdown with Congress on withholding funding and so he won’t give in to anything less than what he wants. It’s just depends whether Democrats want to risk their 2008 hopes on drawing a line in the sand in regards to funding.

And Despite liberal blogs saying that Congress’ 11% approval ratings are a dire warning that everyone hates the democrat’s guts, that doesn’t appear true. As I’ve mentioned before, Democrat’s lead on both the generic congressional ballot, as well as who people trust to do more with Iraq – as well in favor of democrats.

And if you actually look at the approval of Democrats in Congress and not Congress in general, that 11% approval number suddenly jumps to 31% with 57% disapproving (and probably a good half of those are pro-war republicans with the rest probably being strongly anti-war democrats) according to a CBS News poll.