In an interview with Arianna Huffington, Speaker Pelosi made three promises:

1) that the House will not take up a war appropriations bill this year

This isn't news - Democrats gave Bush $14 billion in September so they could put the vote off until after the January presidential primaries.

2) that there will be no war appropriations bill next year that doesn’t include a fixed date for bringing the troops home

This is news, but the devil is in the details. Which troops come home - just "combat" troops or all 160,000 troops that constitute an occupying army? How soon is the deadline? Is the withdrawal schedule specific and enforceable or can Bush ignore it? What will Democrats do if Bush negates it with a signing statement or ignores it?

3) that House Democrats will put up a major fight over the Bush administration’s desire to make permanent the FISA law passed in August, particularly over the issue of retroactive immunity that the Senate has already given in on.

A "major fight" isn't good enough because that allows for - even invites - defeat. Pelosi needs to take warrantless wiretapping completely off the table, just as she did with impeachment.

In any event, is Pelosi serious about her promises or is she just spotting the place kick so she can pull it away at the last minute like Lucy?

If she wants us to believe she's serious, all she needs to do is reach out to the Netroots to help her win these battles, just as she has done on SCHIP.

If she doesn't reach out, she will lose the battles, the support of the Netroots, and possibly even control of Congress because voters are too disgusted to vote for Democrats.

Nikki Tsongas' far-too-narrow 51-46% win in today's special election for a Democratic district (MA-05) should tell Pelosi just how disgusted Democratic voters are.