Very good op-ed from The Boston Globe's Jeff Jacoby:"...But in the end there is no escaping that for many Democrats, this is all about politics. Both President Bush and the war in Iraq are unpopular, and the Democratic leadership hopes to capitalize by opposing both of them.
"We are going to pick up Senate seats as a result of this war," Reid said candidly at an April 12 press conference. "Senator Schumer has shown me numbers that are compelling and astounding." To which Schumer, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, added: "The war in Iraq is a lead weight attached to their ankle. . . . They are looking extinction in the eye." He spoke those words, Congressional Quarterly observed, "making no attempt to hide his glee."
That glee is very telling. It would be one thing for lawmakers to conclude regretfully that America's campaign in Iraq has failed and that bringing the troops home is the least bad option left. Were that the case, voting to pull the plug would be a sad and painful duty, one no member of Congress would carry out with "glee."
Yet when the House of Representatives voted last month to force a withdrawal from Iraq, Democrats were jubilant.
...Senator John McCain, adamantly supporting the current "surge" in Iraq, says he would rather lose a presidential campaign than a war. Democrats, all smiles, prefer to lose the war and win the campaign. They're not alone. In Iraq, Al Qaeda is smiling, too."
