Taking it from the troops

AP:

The Senate voted Wednesday to divert some of the money President Bush requested for the war in Iraq to instead increase patrols against illegal immigrants on the nation's borders and provide the Coast Guard with new boats and helicopters.

An amendment cutting Bush's Iraq request by $1.3 billion to pay for new Border Patrol agents, aircraft and some fencing at border crossings widely used by illegal immigrants was adopted on 59-39 vote.

While the border security funds had sweeping support, Democrats and Republicans argued over whether the cuts to Pentagon war funds would harm troops on the ground in Iraq. The cuts, offered by Judd Gregg, R-N.H., trim Bush's request for the war by almost 3% but don't specify how.

An amendment by Harry Reid which would have funded the increase in border security funds without cutting Pentagon funding failed on what appears to be a mostly party line vote.

I don't think an ad about cutting funding from the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan is going to go over very well in vulnerable Republican districts, no matter where the funding goes. It seems like a real gamble to choose border security over troops in battle, especially when there was the opportunity not to make that choice at all.

*UPDATE* The Carpetbagger points out the President's threat of veto to the bill funding the troops because it spends to much is exactly the kind of thing that the Bush campaign railed on John Kerry for. What a difference two years makes.

I personally wonder if GOP polling now shows that cutting spending and border security is more politically viable than supporting the troops. That's what this action seems to say.