The administration and the military have been hard at work trying to postpone this September as the month of reckoning for the Iraq surge. Hopefully, the Democrats will maintain spines and hold them to this deadline.

But in addition to Dems, count on many Republicans to also stand pat on September. Sen. GOP leader Mitch McConnell has recently stated, "I think everybody anticipates that there's going to be a new strategy in the fall...The time to properly evaluate that, it strikes me, is in September."

Look, it comes down to two realities: the political fate of more than a few Republicans heading into 2008 versus attempts to preserve the legacy of a failed, lame duck president. Which do you think will win out? My money is on the vote-thirsty former.