So What Do You Mean By Benchmark Anyways?

The word "benchmark" seems to take on a new definition every hour these days as debate plays out on the war-funding bill for Iraq.

Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) told reporters early Tuesday afternoon that Republicans have "been talking about benchmarks for the Iraqis for months now."

Then, less than an hour later Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) issued a statement in which he proclaimed, "House Republicans will oppose any bill that includes provisions that undermine our troops and their mission, whether it's benchmarks for failure, arbitrary readiness standards, or a timetable for American surrender."

Boehner's statement is a muted echo of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's comments over the weekend seemingly rejecting any benchmarks with teeth."To begin now to tie our own hands and to say we must do this if they don't do that doesn't allow us the flexibility and creativity that we need," Rice said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

But then today Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam of Florida, the third-ranking Republican in the House, said it was "premature" of Rice to "unilaterally" take anything off the table at this point.

And let's not just beat up on Republicans here; Democrats have offered very little in the way of public concessions about how they plan to override the veto.

As Putnam, Blunt and Boehner have all been quick to point out, Democratic leaders have not done much to reach out across the aisle. Stay tuned. This could develop quickly as the week progresses. Or remain mired as a fundamental impasse.

Whatever the case, these guys are all bound to redefine "benchmark" at least couple dozen more times.