Greenwald on Levin

Glenn Greenwald writes about our increasing dangerous Michigan senator Carl Levin's two-day Iraq vacation and the implications of his recent statements.

By endorsing the idea that the Surge is Working, Senate Democrats are ensuring that the Congress will never force George Bush to withdraw from Iraq. That is the only meaningful result of Levin's remarks. It gives cover to Congressional Republicans to stay with the President, ensures that many "Blue Dog" Democrats will do the same, and almost certainly bolsters Republican support and weakens independent and some Democratic opposition to the war (after all, if "even Democrats" agree the Surge is Working, then we obviously ought to give the Iraqis more time, etc. etc.).

That the Congress will do nothing -- before September, during September and after September -- to force Bush out of Iraq is not news to anyone other than our Beltway elites. The only certain political fact has long been that we will be occupying Iraq at roughly the same levels of troop strength throughout the Bush presidency. But the fact that Congressional Democrats actually seem to weaken by the day -- they actually seem, as a group, to be turning gradually more pro-war -- is extremely alarming for an entirely different reason.

That reason, as Greenwald explains in detail, is that it makes war with Iran even more likely.

I wonder if there is any Michigan Democrat of peaceful persuasion willing to take on "Lieberman Lite" Levin for his senate seat in 2008. And if this peace Democrat (hopefully not completely an oxymoron at this point) were to win the primary, would Levin and his AIPAC millions follow Holy Joe in abandoning the party and running as an independent? Whatever, we really need better senate representation than Levin and Stabenow at this point.