Dems make Murtha Bill a referendum on GOP

Smart move by the Dems. The Murtha Bill was defeated 403-3, with Democrats uniting against it on the grounds that it was nothing more than a political trick.

Democrats said it was a sham and quickly decided to vote against the resolution in an attempt to drain it of significance.

"A disgrace," declared House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "The rankest of politics and the absence of any sense of shame," added Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat.

As Salon points out, what most Dems neglected to do was state how they actually felt about the future conduct of the war. That's only going to get more difficult as time passes, and they'd better start hammering out an intra-party concensus.