SEEMS MORE LIKELY TO HAUNT MAHMOOD:

Pelosi, Dems stumble badly on Iran (John Nichols, March 15, 2007, The Capitol Journal)

When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her allies in the Democratic leadership initially accepted that spending legislation designed to outline an Iraq exit strategy should also include a provision barring the president from attacking Iran without congressional approval, they opened up a monumental discussion about presidential war powers.

As such, the decision by Pelosi and her allies to rewrite their Iraq legislation to exclude the statement regarding the need for congressional approval of any military assault on the neighboring country of Iran sends the worst possible signal to the White House.

It is not too much to suggest that Pelosi's disastrous misstep could haunt her and the Congress for years to come.

Let us suppose the improbable, for just a moment. Suppose the hard-liners in Iran, understanding that their days are numbered, decided to take Israel with them and had a few nuclear tipped missiles with sufficient range to do so. Now let us suppose that his or her aides alert the president that Iran is launching the attack. Do these people on the Left really propose that the president summon Congress to determine whether we'll respond or not?

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 15, 2007 7:22 PM