Perhaps we should be grateful that Joe Biden is running for President.

Yesterday, in a conference call with reporters, the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joseph Biden, a Democrat of Delaware, said he would launch three weeks of hearings on Iraq in January in part to persuade Republicans to go to the White House to oppose a new troop surge for Iraq.

“I totally oppose the surging of additional troops in Baghdad,” Mr. Biden told reporters yesterday. He also said a majority of his colleagues in the Senate also opposed the push for new troops “absent some profound political announcement, addressing the two overriding issues,” which he said were sharing oil revenues and dealing with largely Shiite factional militias.

Of course, I haven’t heard a peep from Biden’s campaign, which is a little disappointing considering I used to be a big fan of his. Maybe they know that I’m not going to forgive the bankruptcy bill…but still, a little pandering is nice. But all kidding aside, the President has a little problem. Not only do the majority of Senators oppose a surge, but so does his new Defense Secretary.

According to two administration officials who asked not to be named, Robert Gates expressed his skepticism about a troop surge in Iraq on his first day on the job, December 18, at a Pentagon meeting with civilians who oversee the Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marines.

The view of the new defense secretary appears to be at odds with the leanings of Mr. Bush, who is expected to announce a new troop surge when he unveils his new war strategy next month.

But that isn’t going to prevent the President from increasingly our troop level by 17,000-20,000.

How additional American troops would be employed in Baghdad remains a central point of discussion among Mr. Bush’s top advisers and top ground commanders in Iraq, officials said. But two officials said there was growing agreement that most would not be attached to American teams training Iraqi Army and police units, because doing so would not necessarily yield the quick improvements in security the White House wants.

That deployment strategy is exactly counter to the advice of the Iraq Study Group. It has little support in Congress. And it basically amounts to an invitation for the Republicans in Congress to begin considering an open break with the President over the war. He certainly cannot hope to keep his party unified and aside from Joe Lieberman he isn’t going to get any bipartisan support. Of course, I like what Kagro X had to say this morning about Lieberman supplying bipartisan support.

Only Senators who win their primaries get to bestow the imprimatur of “bipartisanship.”