Come September Republicans are Going to get a Whole Lot More Cooperative

With all their postering and opposition, republicans loyal to the President, bought the surge about five months. Increasingly Republicans are saying that September is the do or die month. It's then that Petraeus has said he'll be able to tell if the surge is working, and its then that John Boehner (R - Ohio) said that his party will be looking for "plan b".

This appears to be a combination of two Republican forces that usually remain in their own domains, but in Iraq, require reconciliation.

The first force, more like a commandment, is to stay loyal. This means that they support the President no matter how stupid his plan is. This is what we've seen during the debate for the war-funding bill and its subsequent failure to get veto-proof margains.

The second force, similarly as important to the right, is winning elections. This war, as the republicans are keenly aware, is incredibly unpopular. Combine that with an election year and you've got a recipe for republican turn around on Iraq. Voters have ranked Iraq as their formost issue and you can bet republicans on the chopping block in '08 will have to defend it. If caskets drapped in american flags are still flowing out of Iraq, that will be all the more difficult.

So, Republicans are poised to be in the cruical voice in ending the Iraq War. Hopefully democrats are wise enough now to paint this 'flip-flop' as a hypocritical and self-serving political move, as opposed to the Republicans taking the credit for ending the war.