Supporting the Troops

Republican-style:

Virginia Democratic Sen. Jim Webb struggled to secure enough Republican votes Tuesday to win passage of a measure aimed at giving Army soldiers more time at home between de-ployments to Iraq.

But as senators prepared for today's floor debate, the support of a key potential Republican ally - fellow Virginian Sen. John Warner - appeared in doubt.

Warner, one of seven Republican moderates who voted to advance Webb's measure in July, was "reconsidering" his position, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Once again a Republican acts entirely predictably and pulls the rug out from under a Democrat and the media stands by on the sidelines acting as if it's the most surprising thing ever. The wavering Republican meme has been around for at least a couple years. It goes something like this:

1. Republican says that he might consider disagreeing with Bush
2. Media engages in slavish codpiece worship (note that Democrats don't get it for disagreeing with Bush. What makes things interesting for the Beltway is when someone does what he isn't 'supposed to do' - look at courageous Joe Lieberman! - regardless of the correctness of his decision)
3. Republican backtracks and resumes his place at Bush's feet
4. Media paints it as a Democratic loss, but one where all the actors are Republican
5. Rinse and repeat
   

They still haven't figured it out. As many bloggers have pointed out, it's like Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown. You'd think the media would pick up on it by now, but no such luck.

Here's how it works: Republicans hate the troops. If they liked the troops even a little bit, instead of treating them like G.I. Joe action figures, they'd treat them like human beings who have real lives, families, jobs, hopes, dreams and morale issues.