I don't know if Tom Davis used his five minutes yet to speak on the resolution pending on the floor of the House. (C-SPAN's website is maintaining an archive of all the Members' speeches, and as of earlier this morning they had only Rep. Wolf's.) It is important to know, however, that no matter how skeptical Davis feels courageous enough to appear in his floor speech and regardless of whether his leadership "allows" him to vote his "conscience" and support the resolution, the House Republican leadership's true position and strategy for the debate and vote have been leaked.

The Republicans think that if Bush's latest plan (surge, escalation, reinforcement, whatever) is addressed, positively or negatively, they will have lost the debate. They advocate that the subject be changed to the dangers of Islamic jihadism and the need to "succeed" over Islamic jihadism in Iraq. It's safe to assume if Davis uses this type of rhetoric in his floor speech, that he's heeding the urging of his leadership.

As Davis continues to follow the dictates of Bush rather than truly represent our beliefs, we need to continue to express our disapproval. It's abundantly clear now, even if it apparently wasn't a few months ago, that on the most important and prominent issue of the day, Davis will not stop yielding to Bush. We may be stuck with Davis and Bush until 2009, but, however muddled it may be, I implore you to send them a message this November.

I remain confident that Andy Hurst would have been a fine representative. I believe that my fellow voters would have agreed if only they didn't come around a little too late to the realization that a Democratic Congress can begin to undo Bush's mistakes and prevent future debacles. This November we can achieve a win-win by putting a fine politician, Chap Petersen, in the Virginia Senate and telling Tom Davis, via the defeat of his wife, that we've had enough.  ¶ 8:18 AM