[NYTr] Iraq: Dems Hold All the Cards, So Why Are They Folding?

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Huffington Post - Sep 7, 2007
http://www.huffingtonpost.com


Dems Hold All the Cards on Iraq, So Why Are They Folding?

by Arianna Huffington

Remember earlier this summer when Harry Reid and the Democrats vowed 
they were "going to hold the president's feet to the fire" on Iraq? 
Well, now it appears they've decided to play footsie with the White 
House instead and take what one Democratic strategist calls "a more 
nuanced approach" that includes backing off demands to set a firm 
withdrawal date.

In anticipation of next weeks' inevitably sunny side up --- and 
statistically cherry-picked --- report from Gen. Petraeus, the White 
House has cranked up its spin machine, and the Democrats are falling 
into their default duck-and-cover mode.

So we get Bush hopping off a plane in Australia after his eight-hour 
photo-op layover in Iraq and telling the Deputy Prime Minister: "We're 
kicking ass" --- while Democratic leaders let it be known they are 
hoping "to manage expectations" by lowering their sights on Iraq.

Bush is certainly not kicking ass in Iraq but next week he may be 
kicking ass in Washington.

Just last week, Reid was promising "I will not let these Republicans 
hide. When the Senate returns to Washington, I will force them to take 
vote, after vote, after vote on bringing an end to the war in Iraq."

Now the air on Capitol Hill is full of talk of "bipartisan compromise" 
and even Ken Salazar's insipid proposal, which Reid himself had 
previously rejected as a "toothless tiger," is getting renewed interest.

"I can't believe how Democrats are playing this game," a Republican 
strategist told me the other night. "They hold all the cards --- and 
they are folding."

This spineless approach is the last thing Democrats need. Do they have 
no memory of 2002 and 2004, when caution and timidity led to defeat? If 
2008 doesn't turn out to be a landslide for Democrats, it will be 
because of the seeds of caution being planted now.

Perhaps the weight of Katie Couric's take on Iraq --- "real progress
has been made there in terms of security and stability" --- was too
much to bear. In the same way that once Cronkite turned against Vietnam
Johnson knew the war was lost, it appears the Democrats believe that
once Couric embraced the surge, it could no longer be resisted.

So next week, the collective wisdom of 16 intelligence agencies and the 
Government Accounting Office may be eclipsed by the cherry-picked stats 
of Petraeus and the administration. As the /Washington Post/ reports, 
apparently certain kinds of violence in Iraq just don't count in the 
eyes of the administration. Literally --- they aren't being counted. 
Shot in the head from the front? Doesn't count. Shiite on Shiite 
bloodshed? Doesn't count (this despite escalating warfare between rival 
Shi'a groups in Basra). Sunni on Sunni violence? Doesn't count. As
those radicals in the Iraq Study Group put it in their report: "Good
policy is difficult to make when information is systematically
collected in a way that minimizes its discrepancy with policy goals."

And good political strategy is difficult to make when you are
constantly wondering how your decisions will look in a future attack
ad. "This administration's capabilities of having Rose Garden press
conferences and the kind of punitive rhetoric they're using is
concerning to Members," explained Rep. Ellen Tauscher. "I don't think
we have a vehicle [for withdrawal] that will get 60 votes in the
Senate. In the absence of that, we're naked."

Well, better naked than castrated.

The Democrats' thinking on this is unfathomable --- it makes no sense 
logically, morally or politically. They have the majority of the 
American people wanting to bring this war to an end; a constant stream 
of tragic news from Iraq; and a president committed to "stay the
course" despite all evidence that the course we are on is taking us
over the cliff.

It's time for Democrats to stop sounding the retreat on ending the war 
and actually pay attention to John McCain, who said that if they "are 
serious that we ought to stop the war" they should "bring up a bill to 
cut off the funding and end it."

McCain is right. Exercising their Constitutional power of the purse is 
exactly what Democrats need to do if they are serious about ending the 
war. And if they are serious about winning in 2008.

[Arianna Huffington is the editor of The Huffington Post and the author 
of many books, including her most recent, "On Becoming Fearless....in 
Love, Work and Life."]