Some excerpts from the text of their letter to Bush on Iraq:

This is the open letter Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California sent to President Bush on Friday:

Dear Mr. President:

See?! Already they’re too nice! [joke, dammit]

The start of the new Congress brings us opportunities to work together on the critical issues confronting our country.

Here comes the anvil…

The American people demonstrated in the November elections that they do not believe your current Iraq policy will lead to success and that we need a change in direction for the sake of our troops and the Iraqi people. We understand that you are completing your post-election consultations on Iraq and are preparing to make a major address on your Iraq strategy to the American people next week.

Clearly this address presents you with another opportunity to make a long overdue course correction.Despite the fact that our troops have been pushed to the breaking point and, in many cases, have already served multiple tours in Iraq, news reports suggest…

Translation: You haven’t told your co-equal branch of government diddley.

… that you believe [“believe” is a charged word for Bush] the solution to the civil war in Iraq [sound of gauntlet hitting] is to require additional sacrifices from our troops and are therefore prepared to proceed with a substantial U.S. troop increase.

Surging forces is a strategy that you have already tried and that has already failed.

As they say in AA: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

Like many current and former military leaders, we believe that trying again would be a serious mistake. They, like us, believe there is no purely military solution in Iraq. There is only a political solution.

The bottom line:

Adding more combat troops will only endanger more Americans and stretch our military to the breaking point for no strategic gain. And it would undermine our efforts to get the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own future. We are well past the point of more troops for Iraq.

We appreciate you taking these views into consideration.

From the Department of Fat Chance!

Sincerely,

Harry Reid, Majority Leader

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker

Not too bad for a letter on the second day Democrats took power. The good news is that Reid must believe that his caucus is solidly behind him—and that Joe Lieberman can go fuck himself because enough Republicans are on board.

NOTE Of course, the press coverage is appalling. Sweet Jeebus, Pelosi and Reid, the first full day out of the blocks, draw a line in the sand on Iraq, and what does AP write? “Critics slam possible Iraq troop boost”. McClatchy is better: “Top Democrats oppose Iraq ‘surge’”. “Critics slam,” forsooth. Our famously free press was all, “How are the Dems going to govern?” (Ignoring, for the moment, that by the separation of powers doctrine, government is split between three branches) So, the Speaker and the Majority Leader lay out their views, and can’t get mentioned in a headline. So fucking typical.

UPDATE AP has changed its from “Critics slam…” to Lawmakers slam…. Here’s a suggestion. L,a,w,m,a,k,e,r,s,_,s,l,a,m is 14 letters. P,e,l,o,s,i,,_,R,e,i,d,_,s,l,a,m 18 letters. That’s only a difference of 4 letters, surely not significant online. Since the key point of the story is not “lawmakers,” but Reid and Pelosi, why not name the Democrats? What’s wrong with these people?