House Democrats want to stop the war in Iraq by fall 2008

This just in:

WASHINGTON, March 8 — House Democratic leaders intensified their debate with President Bush over Iraq today as they announced legislation that would pull American combat troops out of Iraq before the fall of 2008.

"Only then can we refocus our military efforts on Afghanistan to the extent that we must," Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. She said the Iraq withdrawal deadline would be attached to legislation providing nearly $100 billion requested by the Bush administration for the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns and money to expand health care for veterans.

So it looks like Pelosi is rejecting the approach urged by Yale law professor Bruce Ackerman:

When Congress appropriates money, it can attach riders that can contain instructions saying, "We've spent $350 billion, and we hereby tell you that you can spend $150 billion more." You can then translate that into a time limit by dividing by, say, $9 billion a month in order to get a figure for the number of months. The Congressional Budget Office could be the referee, since it's already keeping tabs on how much money the government is spending on the military and in Iraq.

[With this approach,] nobody can argue that simply saying, "You will not spend more than $500 billion on the Iraq war" is beyond the power of Congress. No argument at all. There will be arguments if Congress explicitly says, "You have to get out in 10 months." But one is really the other.

Get ready for arguments.