NY Times: those damn Dems, using Iraq as a political tool

That’s right. While giving Bush a near-complete free pass on Iraq policy for years, the NYT is now accusing Democrats of being the ones who are trying to use the war to score political points:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed Thursday that Congress repeal the authority it gave President Bush in 2002 to invade Iraq, injecting presidential politics into the Congressional debate over financing the war.

Is Clinton trying to score political points here? Of course. She’s a politician; it’s what she does. But to claim that she is somehow making the war an issue of presidential politics when it had not been so before is incredibly disingenuous. Why doesn’t the NYT say the same thing when McCain calls for even more troops?

Put another way, why is trying to end a disastrous and deadly conflict “politics,” while trying to continue it anything else?

Regardless, it seems unlikely Clinton’s proposal will have much effect, largely because Bush is certain to say the previous authorization stands, and the issue will then go to the courts, which drags out the war and plays into Bush’s desperate hands.

How congress decides to respond to Dubya’s flaunting the will of the people remains to be seen. Each day that goes by demonstrates more clearly the American people want out of Iraq. Congress must continue to apply pressure to the President and–more importantly–continue to force his allies in the Republican party to go on record as supporting the war.