Friday Roundup: In The House

Yesterday, House Democrats put together another volley towards the Bush administration by voting to withdraw most troops from Iraq by April 2008.

It is hard to know what this means in the long term. I would normally just assume that Bush would throw down the veto again, like he has threatened, but I don't know how guaranteed that is in these days of blow after blow for Bush. Congress is about go after him and Harriet Miers on some contempt of Congress action and every day it seems like a new disaster crops up. How much more daily weakening can they take?

On the other side of the Iraq argument is the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza, who asks a reasonable question: how much can Congressional Democrats actually do, especially considering how tiny the margin of majority is in the Senate, and how squirrelly Lieberman is on this issue? The chances for something that will actually be passable, that won't get vetoed, and that will make everyone in the Democratic Party happy are pretty close to zero, but it looks like the battle is beginning again.

Things are bad and keeep getting worse for Bush on other issues, too. The best defensive argument Bush could come up with for Libby during yesterday's presser was basically to say that everything is cool, and that you should chill out about it. Also, by the way, someone in my administration leaked Plame's identity, but everything is cool! Seriously!

The DCCC has more money than the NRCC. I know the DCCC had raised more and done really well, but to find out that the DCCC's cash on hand equalled ten times that of the NRCC was quite a surprise.

It was not, however, a surprise that the NRCC is desperately seeking someone to run against Nick Lampson (Update: Obviously, I meant Chet Edwards - Lampson is a targeted race in a difficult district) that might actually have a shot at winning. They would also like to run someone decent against Ciro, but they don't have anyone for that either. It is getting a little late to not have any kind of candidate at all unless they show up with some dollars, and as a GOP challenger that's always a possibility, but man. That must grate on the NRCC, to not already have people up and rolling.

Cornyn has been all over the news and blogs this week due to a forthcoming tour through Texas. Our own John McClelland discussed his plan for his personal thank you note to Cornyn, and Todd Hill discovered that Cornyn is going to be raising a little money via an unlikely source in Karl Rove. I say unlikely because, with all the trouble at the White House these days, I wouldn't have imagined Rove to be a hot commodity with anybody but the basest of base voters. I guess that shows you where Cornyn thinks he should concentrate his resources these days.

Lastly, some biological concerns. First, Dallas County is starting to spray for West Nile. If you've been wondering what the after-effects of all that rain will be (besides your brazen, uncontrollable yard), you should know that mosquitoes are going to be worse than some Hitchcockian horror film for the next couple of months.

Second, A&M was knocked out of the running for a big biodefense project laboratory. I'm pretty sure I know why - insert Aggie Joke about biological weapons development here.