Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis has voted in favor of HR 1591, a supplemental appropriations bill that funds the war in Iraq (though it also adds regulations designed to hinder the military’s ability to wage it and sets an arbitrary date for withdrawal).

In the days leading up to the vote, Rep. Cohen said he was “conflicted” about the decision and took to the floor to vocalize his ambivalence, saying he hoped his constituents would call his office with their input.

On the eve of the vote, The Hill published an article listing Cohen as one of two Democrats “who were once dead-set against voting for the bill” but had recently shifted into the “undecided column.”

It’s a curious evolution by Cohen, who had already heard plenty from his anti-war constituents almost exactly one month earlier at a town hall meeting, where he vowed, “My hands are not tainted with a vote for this war, and I don’t plan to get them tainted.”

At the time, Cohen explained his opposition to funding the troops, saying:

There are Democrats that I hear regularly that are fearful, politically, that if we don’t fund the-the troops, that people will see this as our causing the failure in Iraq, and they say, “this is Bush’s war, and if we do this, he will make it our defeat.” I don’t buy that.

The liberal base will no doubt forgive him for this about face, given language in the resolution that, as autoegocrat states, “puts Cohen in the clear to do whatever he likes.”

UPDATE: Donna Brazile offers the official “my constituents made me do it” defense.