Lampson backs away from Democrat surrender bill

Houston Chronicle:

Concerned by the troop withdrawal timelines in a huge war funding bill, U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson is among a cluster of House Democrats urging Speaker Nancy Pelosi to back away from a showdown with President Bush.

The Stafford Democrat voted last month for the $124 billion spending bill, which included a requirement for the withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq by September 2008.

But with Bush vowing to veto any bill with troop withdrawal timelines or other such constraints, Lampson and other Democrats from conservative-leaning districts have increasingly pressed the House leadership to avoid a bruising fight.

Even though the public is solidly against the war, many Democrats fear they could be vulnerable to charges of endangering the troops if they delay providing funds for the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The leadership certainly knows of our concern," Lampson said in a telephone interview Wednesday from his home, where he is recuperating from major heart surgery.

Lampson said he supported the spending package because the need to fund the war effort trumped his concerns about the withdrawal timelines.

"The troops funding is of absolutely top priority, critical, and I will always put our troops first," he said.

But Republicans pounced Wednesday on a news report that Lampson was among a trio of freshman Democrats urging the leadership to find accommodation with Bush just weeks after providing the votes for the bill to squeak through 218-212.

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He is backing away from his disastrous decision to back the Democrat surrender plan. He is in a district that wants to win the war and his earlier vote has already cost him. If he and other Democrats in conservative districts had defeated Pelosi and Murtha's slow bleed surrender plan to begin with the troops would have had a better chance of being funded with a clean bill.

Now the Democrats are moving to a symbolic surrender, by making the timetable advisory. That is a sop to their anti war puke base, that is not going to satisfy it or anyone else. They have marched into a box canyon. At least this time Lampson appears to be in closer touch with his district than he is with the surrender monkeys running the House Democrats.