Pelosi to Obama: You want money for Afghanistan, you lobby for it

The Speaker isn't going to lobby her caucus for the funds to finance the surge in Afghanistan. The President is going to have to use his powers of persuasion to get the votes. Or, he'll have Rahm Emanuel use his, such as they are. But, from every indication, Obama and Rahm don't have a lot of political capital with House liberals:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that it's up to President Barack Obama to persuade reluctant Democrats to fund his Afghanistan troop buildup — his most important foreign policy initiative — because she has no plans to do so herself.

Pelosi's reluctance to lobby for an Afghan surge appropriation reflects the deep divisions within the Democratic Party over Obama's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan.

That, coupled with lukewarm public support — in the latest Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey, only 51 percent of the respondents said they support the surge — suggests that support for the administration's Afghan policy is brittle, at best.

In that same Pew poll, we see that support for the Afghanistan surge is lower among Democrats, not quite a majority among independents and higher for Republicans. But, while a bare majority of Dems. think Obama has a plan to end the war, most independents and few Republicans believe that:

The survey also finds unusual political cross-currents about Obama’s handling of Afghanistan in the wake of his decision to increase the number of U.S. forces in the country. Fully 65% of Republicans support Obama’s decision, compared with just 49% of independents and 45% of Democrats.

Nonetheless, Democrats express greater confidence in his handling of the situation in Afghanistan and are more likely to say he has a clear plan for successfully ending the war. About half of Democrats (51%) say he has a clear plan for bringing the situation in Afghanistan to a successful conclusion, compared with 35% of independents and only 18% of Republicans.

Democrats on the Hill who don't support the Afghanistan surge are probably representing the wishes of their constituents. Obama can probably rely on Republican votes, but he's actually going to have to work for Dem. votes.