House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer was one of only 59 Democrats who voted on May 10 to keep U.S. troops in Iraq forever. Today, after months of one-sided negotiations with the White House, Hoyer completely surrendered:

Hoyer confirmed Tuesday a final Iraq spending bill will not include a deadline for troop withdrawals, but promised that Democrats would try to end the war using next year's spending bills.

Hey Steny - we've heard the exact same promises since November - why on earth would we believe you now?

"We can't pass something without the president's signature and the president can't pass something without our agreement," Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters. "So we can be at a standoff and go back and forth at each other, or we can come to an agreement."

Well how about insisting on an agreement that represents the will of the overwhelming majority of Americans (and Iraqis), rather than the two war criminals in the White House?

Democratic leaders first will have to sway a large number of Democrats who want to end the war immediately — or pick up enough Republican votes to make up for the losses. Earlier this month, 171 House members voted to order the withdrawal of combat forces from Iraq within nine months.

Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., co-founder of the liberal Out of Iraq Caucus, said she will vote against the new measure and predicted that many of colleagues will join her.

"Every time we negotiate, it (the bill) becomes weaker," said Woolsey, D-Calif. "This is a Republican bill, so it better be Republican votes that pass it."

Why on earth is Steny Hoyer promoting a Republican bill? Is that why we emptied our pockets to elect a Democratic majority in 2006? Why don't Democrats apply the same rule as the Republicans did - that no bill went to the floor with the support of a majority of the majority?

Hoyer's betrayal is so profound that he has to lie to our faces.

Hoyer said the new bill, despite its lack of a timetable on troop withdrawals, is still a victory for Democrats.

"There's not a rubber stamp or blank check here. . . . And we believe the net result here will be a significant change in direction," said Hoyer.

Change in direction??? The only change is going in the opposite direction - a secret second surge, according to today's expose by Hearst Newspapers:

The Bush administration is quietly on track to nearly double the number of combat troops in Iraq this year, an analysis of Pentagon deployment orders showed Monday.

The little-noticed second surge, designed to reinforce U.S. troops in Iraq, is being executed by sending more combat brigades and extending tours of duty for troops already there.

The actions could boost the number of combat soldiers from 52,500 in early January to as many as 98,000 by the end of this year if the Pentagon overlaps arriving and departing combat brigades.

Separately, when additional support troops are included in this second troop increase, the total number of U.S. troops in Iraq could increase from 162,000 now to more than 200,000 -- a record-high number -- by the end of the year.

Back to Hoyer:

"The fact of the matter is, I think we have moved this debate very substantially forward in terms of accountability and demanding a new direction in Iraq," Hoyer said.

The Maryland Democrat said the next step for his party will be to insist on tougher language in the 2008 military spending bill to be debated this summer.

Personally, I think the next step for the Democratic Party is to find an "aggressive progressive" to run a primary against Steny Hoyer - and against the rest of the 59 Bush Democrats who want to stay in Iraq forever.

What say ye?

Update 1: Russ Feingold blogs at Kos:

This situation is a collapse for Democrats.  We had a strong start, pushed back against the President’s failed policy and held our ground that the supplemental should include binding language to end the war.  But now, as Congress gets ready to send the President a bill that does nothing to get our troops out of Iraq, we are just folding our cards.  As one person commented under Greg Sargent’s great post at TPM cafe, "Send the Congressional Dems over to my place for some poker - I could use a windfall right now." 

This is no time to back down.  This fight to end the war isn’t something that we can just put off or kick down the road. As mcjoan pointed out, it doesn’t make any sense to wait until this "mythical September" when Republicans will suddenly decide that we need to get out of Iraq.  Why should this wait until September?  First Americans had to put up with a Republican Congress that did nothing, and now we are faced with a Democratic Congress that is giving the President exactly what he wants – continuing his failed policy and leaving our troops stuck in the middle of a civil war.  Some strategy.  We can’t back down when the stakes are so high.  I know you’ll keep ratcheting up the pressure, and that’s exactly what we need right now. Now is the time to be pulling out all the stops to end the war.

We're pulling!