Who won the Senate? America

Robert Novak criticizes Mitch McConnell's handling of the Republican filibuster on the Senate anti-surge resolution. But Novak, who has been against American intervention in Iraq from the start of debating the attacks five years ago, misses the larger point. Novak lauds the "prestigious Republican Sen. John Warner" and his anti-surge resolution -- whose anti-troop and anti-President actions are among the low points in Warner's career -- whilst condemning McConnell's public explanation of the Republican actions.

This is a failure to see the forest. The anti-surge resolutions were a disgrace -- an attempt by the Senate to divest itself of responsibility for voting to authorize the President's use of military force, kowtow to the American sentiment against the Iraq war and avoid both a veto and taking action that would have real consequence such as defunding the troops. McConnell helped salvage the dignity of the Senate by using the minority rights of the Republicans to outmaneuver Majority Leader Harry Reid. McConnell should be lauded for his actions, which prevented the Senate from further eroding America's standing internationally.