Democratic Congressional Leadership Poised to Cave on Iraq Funding?

An AP story just out suggests that the Democratic leaders of Congress are moving toward introducing a bill that would fund U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through September 30th without any kind of timetable for withdrawing from the Iraq. The bill would specify "political and military goals for the Iraqi government," linked to continuation of reconstruction aid, but that may be subject to presidential waiver. It would also be shorn of unrelated public spending provisions that appeared in earlier drafts. (The bill would, however, include a definitive version of the federal minimum wage increase that the House and Senate have each approved in varying forms.) Democratic sources insist that the party will continue to advance measures opposing continuation of the Iraq war in various forms, but yielding to the White House on this funding authorization is difficult to square with the Democrats' repeated pledge not to give the president "a blank check" on Iraq.