For the GOP, Taking the War Out of the War Debate

The bunker mentality went beyond the war room. While Republicans from competitive districts watched on television, their colleagues from safe seats did battle with Democrats on the House floor. Of the first 16 Republican speakers, only three won reelection in 2006 with less than 60 percent of the vote, and none won with less than 56 percent.

Those who did brave the hostile climate to come to the House floor preferred to talk of wars other than the one underway in Iraq.

Blunt (67 percent of the vote in November) chose Vietnam. "President Johnson was criticized a generation ago, and still today, for choosing bombing sites in Vietnam," he argued. "But his actions made infinitely more sense than this."

Boehner (64 percent) opted for the Civil War. "Surrounded by personal and political rivals, Lincoln could have given up," the minority leader said. "He could have recalled the Union forces and sent them home. But he didn't."

Like many speakers, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida (62 percent) saw echoes of the Second World War. "The threat of Hitler did not appear suddenly out of a vacuum," she said, in front of a poster of a pilot in uniform.

Putnam (69 percent) opted for the war in the Pacific. "It's easy enough to go back and list all the disappointments we've had in Iraq," he said. "But it's like focusing on one jungle, on one atoll on the march to Tokyo over 60 years ago."

A dazzling debate it wasn't. At the start, there were 75 members of Congress on the floor. By the time Putnam spoke about half an hour later, the number was down to 36; before long, the chamber returned to its usual, depopulated state.

But Putnam, host of the war room, had only begun to fight. He called a news conference in the Capitol basement with Boehner and distributed orange juice made with fruit his family had grown in Florida. Sipping the juice, he repeated his dueling points: (a) "This is just the first step to defunding troops in harm's way," and (b) "This week's resolution is really just a stunt."

The Post's Jonathan Weisman asked for a clarification. "Is this resolution a meaningless stunt or is it very consequential?"

Boehner struggled through an answer about "two levels and two different points." Putnam frowned but said nothing.