Anti-war* Democrats (and Republicans) have their deadline: September 2008. A Democratic strategist I spoke to on Wednesday told me that the bill, ultimately, could be very bad for Ds: “They should have kept it clean.” (Meaning, just a vote on the timetable, without the sweeteners.) But this person also though the bill wouldn’t pass.
Could it have passed without the earmarks? Seventy Sixty percent or so of Americans say they’d like the troops out — it would have been interesting to see if voters’ opinions alone would be enough to sway legislators.
*UPDATE: Anti-this war, anyway.