Hey, Congressional Democrats...want to know where that low approval rating is coming from? Here it is

When are these people going to realize that there is no such thing as "compromise" with this Republican party?

With a mixed picture emerging about progress in Iraq, Senate Democratic leaders are showing a new openness to compromise as they try to attract Republican support for forcing at least modest troop withdrawals in the coming months.

After short-circuiting consideration of votes on some bipartisan proposals on Iraq before the August break, senior Democrats now say they are willing to rethink their push to establish a withdrawal deadline of next spring if doing so will attract the 60 Senate votes needed to prevail.

Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, said, “If we have to make the spring part a goal, rather than something that is binding, and if that is able to produce some additional votes to get us over the filibuster, my own inclination would be to consider that.”

Democrats would need to lure the 60 senators in order to cut off a likely Republican filibuster.

The emerging proposal by Mr. Levin and Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, would still order the administration to begin pulling at least some combat troops out of Iraq, probably by the end of the year. It is not clear what other provisions the measure may include.

But Mr. Levin, who is chairman of the Armed Services Committee and who met Wednesday with Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said a compromise may be worth making. It would allow Congress to assert its own voice on Iraq policy, after falling short of that goal in most such votes throughout the year, he said.

And that accomplishes -- what? Don't these people realize that for Republicans, party loyalty trumps everything? Do they honestly believe that with a White House as vindictiveness as this is, they're going to get enough Republicans to risk their careers for this?

You want to know why Democrats are perceived as wimps? It has nothing to do with national security or war. It's the party's unwillingness to go to the mat for what's right -- and its willingness to sacrifice hundreds more American kids if it means David Broder won't call them "partisan." (Except he will anyway.)