I said yesterday that I didn't think it would pass, but pass it did with thanks to Chuck Hagel who proved once again that he's a Republican in name only. Ace wonders if he's going to run for president on a third party ticket to be Perot-like spoiler.

The Senate voted Tuesday to set a goal of withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq by March 2008, joining the House in voting to set a deadline to end the war and setting the stage for a showdown with President Bush over the future of American involvement in the troubled country.

Thanks to a switch in their votes from just two weeks ago, Nebraska Sens. Chuck Hagel (R) and Ben Nelson (D), provided the margin of victory as Senate Democrats beat back a GOP attempt to strip the withdrawal language from a $122 billion emergency funding bill, which is designed to cover the cost of combat operations in Iraq and Afgahnistan for the rest of this year.

[...]

Hagel, in an impassioned floor speech prior to the vote, criticized Bush for a "flawed and failing policy in Iraq," and said he was no longer ready to believe that the United States was winning its fight against insurgents.

"Iraq is more dangerous today than at any time in the last four years," Hagel said. "The president's strategy is taking America deeper and deeper into this quagmore with no exit strategy."

Is no one is telling him that the surge is working? If he's being kept informed, is he completely ignoring the information? I have a feeling it's the latter.

Kim Priestap regularly pontificates on news and politics at Wizbang.