Once again, the probability of an American in victory results in Democrats deciding to cut and run.

This time, though, their decision to choose a policy of retreat and surrender is a good thing.

it means our troops will have what they need to win the war.

House Democratic leaders could complete work as soon as Monday on a half-trillion-dollar spending package that will include billions of dollars for the war effort in Iraq without the timelines for the withdrawal of combat forces that President Bush has refused to accept, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said yesterday.

In a complicated deal over the war funds, Democrats will include about $11 billion more in domestic spending than Bush has requested, emergency drought relief for the Southeast and legislation to address the subprime mortgage crisis, Hoyer told a meeting of the Washington Post editorial board.

If the bargain were to become law, it would be the third time since Democrats took control of Congress that they would have failed to force Bush to change course in Iraq and continued to fund a war that they have repeatedly vowed to end. But it would also be the clearest instance yet of the president bowing to a Democratic demand for more money for domestic priorities, an increase that he had promised to reject.

Of course, I can't help but notice that the Democrats insist upon more pork as a condition of allowing American national security to be served. Who is exercising fiscal restraint in Washington? Not the Democrats -- and their constituencies who prefer defeat to victory.