John Warner Day Four

Sen. Warner skipped a day of making news yesterday, but it was worth it. Today, he made another step forward in saying for the first time he'd consider supporting Congressionally mandated timetables for withdrawing our troops from Iraq, if President Bush doesn't initiate such a move himself. Just three days ago, Warner explicitly said he'd vote against such proposals. While I still think Warner could and should make a personal plea to Rep. Tom Davis to join Warner, Warner's shown sufficient leadership thus far to drag along some fellow Republican Senators.

[I based this post on an AP report, but that report didn't attribute any of Warner's remarks today to any forum other than Meet the Press. I just watched Meet the Press for myself. Warner was pressed pretty hard by Tim Russert to answer the hypothetical of what Warner would do if Bush's spokespeople testify on Sept. 15 and don't promise actual withdrawals of troops. Warner only would say that he wouldn't want it to see Bush veto a bill presented to Bush by Congress. It's possible that Warner was saying he wouldn't vote for a withdrawal proposal unless there were at least 66 other Senators who would also vote for it. Thus far, there haven't even been 60 Senators supporting timetables. If we get to 66 not counting Warner any time soon, I can't imagine Bush wouldn't jump in front of that parade, but, then again, I was one of the few idiots who thought that Bush wouldn't actually invade Iraq in the first place even on the eve of his doing it.]