Harry Reid's Quagmire

According to the New York Times this Thursday night, “A proposal to cut off money for military operations in Iraq fell far short in the Senate this afternoon, a day after Democrats lost their best chance of changing the course of the war.” (“Bid to Cut Off Iraq War Funding Fails”).

Perhaps the Democratic desire to lose battles becomes a habit. The Russ Feingold-Harry Reid resolution to cut off funding, Vietnam-style, for the Iraq war, was body-slammed in the Democrat-controlled Senate by a vote of 70-28.

The New York Times admits the bid “failed,” but tries to blame the loss as the failure to cut off the Republican filibuster, thus:

Legislation sponsored by Senators Russell D. Feingold, the Wisconsin Democrat who has been one of the fiercest critics of the Bush administration’s war policy, and Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic majority leader, received only 28 “yes” votes, 32 fewer than needed to cut off a Republican filibuster.

“A majority of the House and a majority of the Senate want to change the direction of the war in Iraq,” Mr. Reid said in a meeting with reporters beforehand. “We have voted accordingly on more than one occasion, in fact on many occasions. But the House having done their job, they come to the Senate and the Senate Republicans, the vast majority of them will not allow us to change the direction of the war in Iraq.”

The vast majority of Republicans? In order to get a 70-28 trouncing, more than a vast majority of Republicans have to vote “nay.”

Is it time yet for Reid to admit that his misguided mission to force American defeat in Iraq has failed, that he and the Democrats have lost, and they need to withdraw immediately?