It’s now official. The Democratic congress has gone off its rocker. By a 51-47 vote, the Senate has approved an Iraq withdrawal timetable. The bill commands the president to:

"Commence the phased redeployment of United States forces from Iraq not later than 120 days after the enactment of this Act, with the goal of redeploying, by March 31, 2008, all United States combat forces from Iraq except for a limited number that are essential for blah blah blah..."

If you want a great picture of our amoral, pork-hungry Congress-critters, I strongly urge you to click over to the Victory Caucus and read the whole thing.

So what’s next? The conventional wisdom is that the president vetoes the bill, Congress authorizes temporary measures to keep the troops funded, and the debate drags on until one side decides it’s to its political advantage to bring closure to the legislative wranglings. The Democrats display their anti-war bona fides to the Nutroots, a sufficient number of Republicans are steadfast enough to please their base, and the troops get their funds. Everyone wins! Even al Qaeda!

But what about this: What if the president surprises everyone and signs the bill into law but says the usurpation of the president’s Commander in Chief duties are unconstitutional and he has no intention of following the orders of 535 congressional General wannabes. Basically, he does what Ronald Reagan should have done in Iran/Contra which was say, “The Boland Amendment was unconstitutional and you’re damn right I disregarded it. Impeach me if you wish.”

If Bush takes such a course, then the Congress can do one or two things: It can bring the law to the Supreme Court for a ruling on its constitutionality, a case that it will surely lose. Or it can just skip that step and go right to impeachment.

If that happens, they will successfully impeach the president in the House but never get him convicted in the Senate. Regardless, the prolonged orgasmic reaction from the fever swamp will gratify them nonetheless.

As for the president, he gets to show that he stood up for a matter of serious principle at a moment in history when the opposition party has gone certifiably insane. Seriously – if Congress wants to end the war and has the votes, it can and should do so by using its Constitutional power of the purse. But does anyone think it’s in the national interest to signal our future strategy to our enemies?

Perhaps the system needs the partisan version of a Gunfight at the OK Corral to jolt itself back to normalcy. I know I’m dreaming here, but the time has come to leach the bitterness out of our body politic. For that, only dramatic action will suffice.  Besides, with this Congress and this president, a constitutional showdown is inevitable.  The president may as well have the battle on favorable terrain.

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