OpinionJournal - Extra: If the Shoe Fits

re: From a post on Sen. Chuck Hagel's remark about shoe salesmen (and support or nonsupport for the Iraq War), Mark Laswell writes, "...It's not clear precisely what the point would be of a resolution opposing the troop increase, other than letting legislators flatter themselves with the notion that they have some influence over the president's war-making strategy. Conducting a periodic opinion poll on Capitol Hill (for that's what nonbinding resolutions are) might be useful. Certainly historians would wish that during the Civil War the Senate had taken its temperature every few months regarding President Lincoln's prosecution of the war. Might have been interesting to compare their vacillations with his single-mindedness..."...