Role Reversal: Democrats Vote Overwhelming for War Funding as GOP Opposes.

Talk about role reversal! I am trying to figure out the democrats and the left view the war as amoral can reconcile overwhelming support to finance the conflict. Anyway between Iraq and mots of the anti-terror policies adopted by Obama its clear the vindication of Bush continues. For the GOP the 5 billion dollar bailout of the IMF was the dealbreaker, for the democrats, it was Obama who rallied thier support for the wars. Next week up to the Senate.

House Republicans had been very supportive of the spending bill, but balked at a provision in the latest version that would give billions to the International Monetary Fund. The version passed by the House today also shelved a ban on releasing photos documenting abuse of foreign prisoners by American soldiers, a move also decried by Republicans.

With Tuesday’s vote, the spending bill now moves to the Senate, which could act on it this week.The House had originally passed the measure last month by an overwhelming vote of 368-60. But that bill did not include the provision, initially inserted by the Senate and sharply criticized by House Republicans, that extends an additional $5 billion so the I.M.F. can secure $108 billion to give out in loans.

Several leading House Republicans – including the minority leader, John Boehner, and the whip, Eric Cantor – called the I.M.F. provision a “global bailout.”Mr. Obama has urged Congress to approve the funds. After congressional negotiators reached a deal last week to drop the photo ban, he also promised that his administration would help keep the photos sealed.

For their part, Democratic supporters in Congress argued that around 80 percent of the money in the measure will go toward the two wars. The House Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland, also took to the floor to point out that Republicans like Ronald Reagan had supported funding the I.M.F......

The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, urged rank-and-file Democrats to get behind the war spending bill, despite those misgivings.“The President of the United States is asking me to ask you to vote for this supplemental,” Mrs. Pelosi, Democrat of California, told lawmakers in a closed caucus meeting, according to officials who attended. Mrs. Pelosi added that Democrats simply could not allow the spending measure to fail.

In an odd way the election of Obama has managed to assure funding of the war will be far less controversial as his own base can't be hysterically opposed to the man they adore.