Not that we didn’t know that already. Murtha is/was one of the staunchest anti-war, anti-surge Democrats. He denied, up and down, that the surge was working, even telling the Brookings Institute it was wrong. Now he says the surge is working. Unsurprisingly, that could be a problem for our friends on the Left.

Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), one of the leading anti-war voices in the House Democratic Caucus, is back from a trip to Iraq and he now says the “surge is working.” This could be a huge problem for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders, who are blocking approval of the full $200 billion being sought by President Bush for combat operations in Iraq in 2008.

Murtha’s latest comments are also a stark reversal from what he said earlier in the year…

But Pelosi, who is scheduled to speak to a Democratic National Committee event in Virginia on Friday, will surely face tough questions from reporters regarding Murtha’s statement on the surge.

“This could be a real headache for us,” said one top House Democratic aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Pelosi is going to be furious.”

Here’s one of the first comments on Politico’s entry:

Well, the surge may be working, but none of the political goals have been met, so we’re back to square one. Our men and women die, and the Iraqi Congress does absolutely nothing. Great. You have to be a serious simpleton to call that victory.

It went from “The surge isn’t working!” to “Despite what the troops on the ground and media sources are saying, the surge isn’t working!” to “Well, the surge may be working, but the Iraqi Congress hasn’t made enough political progress!”.

The lack of political progress isn’t something many people debate. It’s the same page Republicans are on. But the Iraqi Congress is relatively new. They just came out of decades of Saddam’s rule. Until recently, car bombs were going off all of the time, with the death toll steadily rising. I don’t think we can exactly expect it to be a well-oiled democracy machine. Our own Congress is over 200 years old and Washington is relatively safe for its members. Yet, it can’t manage to get higher than a 30% approval rating and has made almost no progress this year.

Via Glenn Reynolds.