Instead of demanding end dates, pull out dates, surrender dates, Gordon Smith, on behalf of the RINOS and Democrats, is writing the bill whose agenda is to wrest “control” of the war from the GOP (? I thought the President was Commander in Chief).
From USA Today:

The Democrats’ alternative to Petraeus’ plan is being drafted, but Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., said it would drop troop levels “significantly” and change the mission of those who remain in Iraq to focus on training Iraqi troops and protecting American diplomats.

At least one Republican senator, Gordon Smith of Oregon, is helping to draft the proposal, but Democrats will need considerably more GOP support if their bill has any chance of passage.

Here’s what the US New blog says in a wrap up of the give and take of the Petraeus testimony and subsequent Bush speech in terms of war being a ‘political’ issue.

On NBC Nightly News, Washington bureau chief and host of Meet the Press Tim Russert said, “Petraeus solidified the base for…Bush on the Republican side. … Both parties have lined up. The bases of their party are overwhelmingly in favor of the view being expressed by the President on the Republican side, Sen. Obama and other candidates on the Democratic side.” The CBS Evening News reported Democrats “can’t pass anything without Republican support…”

And Gordon Smith is writing legislation for the Democrats!? I thought we were on the same side: America’s.