Surprise, surprise. After generating headlines putting superficial distance between himself and Dubya, Sen. Lugar still won't back legislation that would end the occupation.

Asked on NBC's Today (via Think Progress), "Why not back up your words with a vote?", Lugar lamely responded:

Those particular resolutions do not have great effect ... the resolutions usually deal with so-called timetables, benchmarks which have no particular legal consequence. They may be a venting of emotion...

...My plea is to the president -- not to the members of Congress, to the president -- to come forward with a plan now that gives us a chance of a bipartisan conclusion. All the rest of the conclusions are very partisan, and I think will not work.

Bipartisanship, of course, is what got us into this occupation. And blind bipartisanship will keep us there.

Furthermore, Lugar's answer was dishonest.

He won't vote to end the occupation because he wants it to continue, just with reduced troop levels. He said so himself in his speech.

This is line with what appears to be a coordinated strategy by other leading Senate Republicans.

They recognize that being attached to Bush's hip is political death in 2008, but they won't substantively renounce Bush's foreign policy objectives in Iraq.

So they'll express concerns about continuing the "surge" past September, but they won't vote to fully redeploy troops out of Iraq.

Perhaps continued grassroots pressure will eventually make these Republicans crack and side with the American people and the Iraqi people.

But until then, save your praise.