Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell took the floor yesterday to point out that leading Democrats have recently agreed that setting timetables for withdrawal from Iraq helps the enemy and endangers our troops. So WHY are they now all in favor of a timetable? From his speech:

"Osama Bin Laden and his followers have repeatedly said that the U.S. does not have the stomach for a long fight with the terrorists. Passage of the Reid Joint Resolution will be the first concrete sign since Sept. 11, 2001, that he was right on target.

"Timetables are bad. But don't just take my word for it.

"Speaking at the National Press Club in 2005, my good friend the Majority Leader himself said this: 'As for setting a timeline, as we learned in the Balkans, that's not a wise decision, because it only empowers those who don't want us there, and it doesn't work well to do that.'

"Six months after that, the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Biden, said this: 'A deadline for pulling out ... will only encourage our enemies to wait us out' ... it would be 'a Lebanon in 1985. And God knows where it goes from there.' That was our friend, Joe Biden, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"And three months later, Senator Clinton made the same point when she said, 'I don't believe it's smart to set a date for withdrawal,' said Senator Clinton. 'I don't think you should ever telegraph your intentions to the enemy so they can await you.' "That's the Majority Leader, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and a prominent Democrat presidential candidate.

"Surely Senators Reid, Biden, and Clinton have not changed their minds about who would benefit the most if we set a date certain for withdrawal. They know just as well as I do that this is what the terrorists have been waiting for -- and just what our allies in Iraq, and the entire region of the world have feared.

Read the whole thing at the link above. Are these Senators so desperate to appeal to the extreme anti-war left that they are willing to help terrorists to do it?

By their words and deeds, it seems so.

Thanks to John Hinderaker of Power Line for pointing to this speech.