Dems Lacking Votes On Iraq Bill

The Hill is reporting that Nancy Pelosi doesn't have the votes on the supplemental appropriations bill on Iraq:

But the House Rules Committee had not met by late yesterday afternoon, a clear indication that Democratic leaders do not yet have the votes to pass the bill. House rules require lawmakers to have 24 hours to read legislation before it is considered on the floor, so the later the Rules Committee meets, the later Thursday or possibly Friday the House would vote.

“We’re close, but not there yet,” a House Democratic leadership aide conceded.

Senior Democratic lawmakers predicted they would have the votes before going to the floor, but conceded that, like the previous Republican majority, they might have to proceed without the requisite number of votes already in the bag and hope that the act of voting would persuade lawmakers to support their leaders’ bill.

With the bill under attack from both teh left and right of the Democratic Caucus, Pelosi is looking weaker and weaker.

Update: Captain Ed writes:

When the Democrats won their majority in November, I warned that the thin margin would likely prove more of a curse than a boon to Nancy Pelosi. In this case, at least, it certainly will play out that way. It makes her look ineffective and incoherent, and both antiwar and anti-corruption voters will scratch their heads to see a porked-up bill funding the war for eighteen months with ridiculous conditions slouching its way to the House floor, its hour come at last.

Pelosi & Co. still labor under the belief that their victory in November was because of their stance on the war, but they are learning that their victory was more because they weren't Republicans.