Last year, in the heat of the primary, Barney Frank wrote a very important essay on the "partisan fights of the 90s." In light of the Obama Justice Department's decision to defend DOMA in Federal court, I would like to briefly revisit that essay.

On Saturday evening, the New York Times finally called for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. The editors said

It is frighteningly clear that Mr. Bush's plan is to stay the course as long as he is president and dump the mess on his successor. Whatever his cause was, it is lost.

and concluded that

This country faces a choice. We can go on allowing Mr. Bush to drag out this war without end or purpose. Or we can insist that American troops are withdrawn as quickly and safely as we can manage -- with as much effort as possible to stop the chaos from spreading.

So the question arises: what is the Speaker to do if she agrees with the nation's paper of record?

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There has been considerable discussion here recently about just how we might force the President to scale back and eventually withdraw from Iraq. The fastest and most obvious way would be to cut off funds. But what Senator in his right mind would do that, you ask? The Senior Senator from West Virginia, Robert Byrd, that's who. He's just been reelected, and he's Chairman of the Appropriations Committee