The Sleeping Giant AWAKENS ... er ...

We must issue an urgent warning to our Commander-in-Chief: the Democrats are gunning for him:

Democratic leaders said Tuesday that they intended to hold symbolic votes in the House and Senate on President Bush’s plan to send more troops to Baghdad, forcing Republicans to take a stand on the proposal and seeking to isolate the president politically over his handling of the war.

Senate Democrats decided to schedule a vote on the resolution after a closed-door meeting on a day when Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts introduced legislation to require Mr. Bush to gain Congressional approval before sending more troops to Iraq.

[...]

The office of Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House, followed with an announcement that the House would also take up a resolution in opposition to a troop increase. House Democrats were scheduled to meet Wednesday morning to consider whether to interrupt their carefully choreographed 100-hour, two-week-long rollout of their domestic agenda this month to address the Iraq war.

In both chambers, Democrats made clear that the resolutions — which would do nothing in practical terms to block Mr. Bush’s intention to increase the United States military presence in Iraq — would be the minimum steps they would pursue. They did not rule out eventually considering more muscular responses, like seeking to cap the number of troops being deployed to Iraq or limiting financing for the war — steps that could provoke a Constitutional and political showdown over the president’s power to wage war.

Symbolic votes. Non-binding resolutions. Debating whether to interrupt the Democrats' carefully choreographed pageantry of legislature. Ted Kennedy.

We take back every harsh thing we ever said about the Democrats, because clearly they mean business. Obviously, they're not afraid to stake their careers and their integrity by standing in the way of the Executive Juggernaut. Political cynics like us be damned - they're going to take a stand against Not Having Taken A Stand In The Past.

Centuries from now, historians will look back and recall not the Congress's shameful rollover on torture with the Military Commissions Act, nor their mealy-mouthed inadequacy after every pillar of the Iraq strategy had been smashed, nor their fascination with legislative trivia (the minimum wage?!) over the life and death of American fighting men. No, history will remember Nancy Pelosi and Ted "The Kennedy Not Currently In Rehab" Kennedy as heroes for debating whether or not to spend time voting on a non-binding resolution. Bravo.