Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) Murtha has made clear the non-starter nonbinding resolution, which woul have been merely symbolic in nature, was only the "first step." Indeed, Murtha may be running this show.
For months before the election he was advocating redeployment of troops from Iraq. He has forged a strategy for the promised "second step" against President Bush's Iraq policy (after the "first step" nonbinding resolution of disapproval).
Murtha, with the ongoing support of Speaker Pelosi, plans to put conditions on funding of U.S. troops. The decorated hero of the Vietnamese & Korean Wars has shaped party policy that would cripple Bush's troop surge by placing conditions on funding. According to Bob Novak, "Murtha, chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on Defense, does not hide the point of setting standards for training, equipping and resting troops: 'They won't have the equipment, they don't have the training and they won't be able to do the work.' "
As Appropriations chair, Murtha can monitor and, perhaps, micro-manage funding strategy, starving The Chimperor's "surge" , while promising not to approve any measures that would cut funding for forces presently deployed in Iraq.