The negotiation table is like the poker table: you don’t get a seat unless you have the chips to play. By failing to prove she actually has the will and/or the power to say no, Pelosi has shown the President she has no leverage.

The Defense Department’s annual budget is a phantom figure, falling far short of what we truly spend on defense. It doesn’t include either supplemental appropriations, or money allocated to defense by other departments.

But in trying to come up with a true figure, what should be included?

Without consulting the progressives who voted her in as Speaker, Nancy Pelosi joined the Blue Dogs to come up with a brilliant plan to pass a rule saying they had passed a budget without actually troubling themselves to do so.

FDL has learned that in a last minute move, Nancy Pelosi sneaked language into the rule that the House is voting on tonight regarding war funding.

Embedded in the rule is the requirement that the House will vote on the deficit commissions’s recommendations in the lame duck session if they pass the Senate.

Pelosi knows full well what the committee wants to do. The fix is in.

Happening on CSPAN now.

Pelosi’s office number: (202) 225-4965

Today on a call with reporters and bloggers, Representatives McGovern (D-MA) and Pingree (D-ME) made it crystal clear that not only is the war in Afghanistan not making us safer, it’s truly hampering efforts to get this country back on track.

Repeatedly, Pingree and McGovern related how when it comes to domestic priorities like jobs, unemployment insurance and aid to states, the arguments they’re having with their colleagues in the House of Representatives center on spending, the deficit and the seemingly all-important question, “How are you going to pay for it?” But when it comes to the war, there’s no such debate. As Representative McGovern put it bluntly:

We’re going bankrupt, we can’t extend unemployment insurance, but when it comes to Karzai, we’re a bottomless pit.

Whether you’re borrowing from China or from Americans, you’re, um, still BORROWING. War bonds are just bonds, borrowed funds that have to be paid back with interest. The point of a war tax is to finance an escalation up front, instead of paying more in the long run and hiding the true cost.

Keep dialing.

We could actually win this one.

You can find the Whip List here, which includes phone numbers and the place to let us know what you learn.