Ya Think The Dems Are Rooting For Defeat?

Yesterday's WaPo* ran an interesting story, one you might not expect to see in a left-leaning, anti-war, anti-Bush MSM rag, but there it was, nonetheless.

Clyburn: Positive Report by Petraeus Could Split House Democrats on War

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Monday that a strongly positive report on progress on Iraq by Army Gen. David Petraeus likely would split Democrats in the House and impede his party's efforts to press for a timetable to end the war.

Clyburn, in an interview with the washingtonpost.com video program PostTalk, said Democrats might be wise to wait for the Petraeus report, scheduled to be delivered in September, before charting next steps in their year-long struggle with President Bush over the direction of U.S. strategy.

Clyburn noted that Petraeus carries significant weight among the 47 members of the Blue Dog caucus in the House, a group of moderate to conservative Democrats. Without their support, he said, Democratic leaders would find it virtually impossible to pass legislation setting a timetable for withdrawal.

"I think there would be enough support in that group to want to stay the course and if the Republicans were to stay united as they have been, then it would be a problem for us," Clyburn said. "We, by and large, would be wise to wait on the report."

Many Democrats have anticipated that, at best, Petraeus and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker would present a mixed analysis of the success of the current troop surge strategy, given continued violence in Baghdad. But of late there have been signs that the commander of U.S. forces might be preparing something more generally positive. Clyburn said that would be "a real big problem for us." (emphasis added)

Have the Dems lost all perspective? Has whuppin' Bush really become that much more important to them than prevailing in Iraq and having a decisive victory -- albeit, an early one in a long war -- over Islamofascism?

Apparently so. Good news from Iraq certainly isn't good for them; it's not even just a problem. It's a real big problem. Nothing could be worse ... we're winning! Can you find a better definition for "traitor?"

It's so obvious that a good report should alter the Dems' timetable strategy for defeat in Iraq, but the House Whip is so concerned with the politics of Bush hatred that he, like the other leaders of the Dem party, have lost all perspective on what the objective is here.

They do not have to defeat Bush; he's out of office soon enough anyway, and with an approval rating hoving in the teens ... about where Congress is ... why bother? Why not focus on America's security, on military power, on clout levels appropriate for our power?

Because then you'd have to be a Republican.

* Yeah, yeah, yesterday's WaPo. Cut me some slack ... I'm still on vacation.

hat-tip: Jim