Democrats Finally Do the Right Thing on Iraq

This post, written by Christy Hardin Smith, originally appeared on FIreDogLake

I'm with Bill Scher on this one:

...loud and proud obstructionism of popular initiatives carries big risks. Either public pressure will push enough Republicans to the majority camp to break those filibusters. Or, voters will seek to remove those who obstruct what they want at the ballot box next year.

Either way, exposing the obstructionists will eventually lead to better legislative results than what we've seen the past six months. In other words, fighting for good legislation is responsible governing.

Perhaps the punditocracy will try to pillory Reid for embracing those insidious bloggers and those awful opponents of indefinite occupation (who comprise the majority of voters).

But Reid's bold move is no evidence of political pandering. Senate leaders were not pandering to the punditocracy when they took its advice for the last six months. They just thought the pundits gave good advice.

And Senate leaders are not pandering now. They just realize the pundits were wrong.

Unlike the White House and the conservative minority, these Senate leaders are able to recognize when a strategy isn't working.

Bob Geiger has a piece today on Harry Reid that is worth some reading. And Digby hits this one squarely:

This is a good start. The American people are not aware that the Republicans are standing in the way of every piece of important legislation before the nation and the press is, as usual, failing to tell them. Indeed, the Democrats in congress are being blamed for the GOP's obstruction. The Dems need to draw them a picture and this is one way to do it.

As Rick Perlstein notes here, the last time the wingnuts felt something was so important they were willing to go to the floor and talk till they turned blue was a long, long time ago:

History buffs, and those with long memories, will recall the last time conservatives found something important enough to stand up and obstruct all night long: the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The one that outlawed discrimination in public accomodations.

We'll have to see if protecting their lame-duck loser's Iraq policy is as important to them as Jim Crow was to an earlier generation. You never know with these people, it just might be.