I'm really bad at sourcing this, so please feel free to add any links that might prove or disprove my idea.
So let's say your a republican lawmaker (pretend to be sleazy). It's an election year and all indications are that your party, and probalby you personally, will lose power.
One of the main problems is an unpopular war waged by an unpopular president about to enter his last congressional session - he's a lame duck. So you need something that will allow the congress to distance itself from the president on an issue that most Americans don't like, maybe something that even the courts have ruled against. Something that allows you to come off as the good guys, while at the same time allowing the president to have only a modest loss of face (probably something that in the end you can work a compromise on).
More overr the fold...
So here we are with this whole torrture of detainees, article 3 of the Geneva Convention issue. Congress has already spoken by adopting the McCain ammendment. Twice the Supreme Court ruled against the administration, and most people around the world accept the current situation.
What better opportunity to show the American people that Congress is not a rubber stamp body for the president? Just weeks before the election here we have a battle royale between the president and Congress. And what a battle. Today the president was "beligerent" according to David Gergen. He was unexpectedly harsh in his tone and temperament. He came out swinging strong. He's pissed.
So what will happen? If we turn to page 372 of the Rove playbook I think we'll see that over the next 2 weeks Congress will manage to assuage the presidents concerns while keeping most of the current programs in place, while at the same time appearing to the American people as reasonable and concerned about America's moral authority in the world.
I don't know what the resoultion will be. But I think it's been decided on well before the curtain opened up on this latest act in this charae of a presidency. I think this is all theater for the American people with the goal of trying to change voters minds that they can trust their republican congressmen, and that they should vote to keep them in power.
I think dems better get their act together fast and offer a clear concise vision for America summed up in 10 words or less. (I know....reality means a clear vision should be volumes, but who's really going to read that?)