Washington Post - Senate Democrats Split on Measure Opposing Bush

Wall Street Journal - Bush Senate Allies to Seek Iraq Benchmarks

New York Times - Compromise Senate Measure Rebuffing Bush's Iraq Buildup Gathers Support

Washington Times - Majority in Senate Support 'Stay the Course' Resolution

The Washington Post and the WSJ headlines hit closest to describing what is really going on behind the scenes. The New York Times tries to spin the recent Democrat movement "toward GOP positions" - which is how the Washington Post reports recent development -- as (surprise) anti-Bush. The worst of the bunch is the Washington Times, which makes a laughable effort to spin the Senate as getting behind a "stay the course" resolution.

The real battle over these non-binding resolutions is between the Warner-Levin camp and the new McCain-Lieberman resolution as described in the WSJ story.

This entire debate in the Senate has always been purely a political exercise because all of these resolutions are non-binding and thus policy impotent. But the political advantages that the Democrats felt they were gaining through this exercise appear to be slipping away. Depending how the process continues to play out over the next week, the entire episode could ironically provide Senate Republicans and President Bush a much needed boost.