54 percent.

That’s the number of Americans who would vote to cut off funding for President Bush’s escalation plan if they were in Congress, according to a Fox News poll.

So while most Americans simply want to STOP the escalation, the Senate cannot even engage in a debate about whether or not to pass a non-binding resolution voicing opposition to the plan.

The House, to its credit, is at least considering a resolution in opposition to the Iraq legislation.  However, the rhetoric there is not very high-minded. 

For those of you who saw The Daily Show last night, I hope you enjoyed it as Representative Bishop of Utah tried to make the odd comparison between the House resolution on Iraq, and the Broadway musical "Wicked" (which he happened to have seen the night before):

"There are some people who have opposed this war from the very beginning; they still oppose it now; and I give them credit to their commitment to consistency, although I don’t necessarily agree with their decision. Some of those have also criticized this resolution as also being too weak of a resolution, for indeed the resolution today is a nonbinding resolution. By definition, it means it does nothing. It changes nothing, but allows us all to make statements for media consumption and allows some of those who made the original vote to use force the ability to shirk the responsibility of that particular action.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity of going back to Baltimore and watching a play, ‘Wicked’. And in the play, the main character, the male lead, Fiero, is in love with Elphaba. And she tries to distance herself from him by saying, ‘Yeah, but you’re thoughtless and shallow.’ And Fiero says, ‘I know, but I am a deep shallow.’

This resolution is a deep shallow. It may have words aimed at the White House and the White House action, but regardless of those words, when history is written the finger of accusation will not point to the executive branch, who has been consistent, it is going to point back here to Congress, to our actions."

From their seats, other representatives urged Representative Bishop to "sit down", while others urged "somebody to open up a window".  Then they all went to the Jellicle Ball.