Monday

It's getting a lot of play on the "internets," but I'm getting worried about the Democratic response to the recent Republican boldness on their Iraq debacle. Karl Rove, who seems to have dodged the prosecutor's indictment (for now), is pressing ahead in his usual fashion, making a virtue out of a vice.

The vice, obviously, is the murderously bungled Iraq mess. It's a failure in every respect and an increasingly heavy albatross for an increasingly weak Repub party. But Rove loves to run on his weakness and the opponent's strength. It's his featured strategy. Once he beats you where you live, you have no chance against where he lives.

He does this, obviously, through lies. His lies are bold and, he trusts, unexamined by a useless media. Once his lies and your truth are just two party viewpoints, he wins. The arsonist and the fire-fighter become two viewpoints, with no moral perspective separating them.

Thus we have the Iraq war. The Junta is just as wrong today as they were three years ago, but now the war is gigantically unpopular. Americans are starting to understand what's been done in their name, and they don't like it.

So rather than run away, Rove is leading Repubs to say: "I support what the Junta is doing, and if you don't you're an al Qaeda sleeper agent." They're saying it loud and with the intensity that drowns out opposing voices.

Now, you would think that having your opponent shout transparent lies at the top of their voice would be a good thing. Not for Democrats. The volume scares them like field mice at a rock concert.

So they slink away and indulge in inter-party squabbles. Some think that's okay - having disagreements is what real Americans do. Real Americans aren't lock-step rubber-stamp brainwashing victims like the Repub party has become.

While I agree with the sentiment, I don't think that the Democrats can afford the indigence of being American just yet. The voting populace is accustomed to being told straightforward simplistic statements (lies, but whatever). If you have an honest debate, you are painted as 'indecisive.'

Democrats need to take a stand. But not a 'specific date for withdrawal' stand. More like a 'this is wrong and we will fix it' stand. The more they tie themselves to a specific policy, the more Rove will beat them with it. They need to say: "this is a Republican mess." Don't take ownership of it until the voters give you the power to change things.

Go on the attack. "They have no plan. They will be there forever."

And wait for troops to be withdrawn before the election in November to give Repubs a boost. Because no policy or life or country is as important as Repub politics.