It's all about-face

Kevin Drum editorializes in LAT The summer's polls show that one-third of Americans favor an immediate withdrawal from Iraq and nearly two-thirds support withdrawal within the next year. In the face of such numbers, the conventional wisdom predicts disaster at the polls for Republicans in the 2006 midterm elections. As conservative insider Grover Norquist put it recently: 'If Iraq is in the rearview mirror in the '06 elections, the Republicans will do fine. But if it's still in the windshield, there are problems.'

Precisely. And the salivating Dems are just hoping it gets worse.

Is this good news for Democrats? Maybe, but a growing disconnect between the party's establishment hawks and an increasingly antiwar base could foretell an even bigger crackup on the Democratic than the Republican side. So far, none of the best known faces of the Democratic Party — Hillary Clinton, say, or Joe Biden, or John Kerry, all of whom supported the war — have joined those clamoring for an end to the fighting. In fact, the foreign policy establishment of the Democratic Party is lined up with President Bush in favor of 'staying the course.' "

Those "best known faces" are considering running for President, and they are smart enough to know that they cannot overcome the Dem's perception about being weak on defense. Maybe the anti-war side of the party should shut up.