Expect a rapproachment: an agreement between DNC chairman Howard Dean and occasional sparring partner Rahm Emanuel on how the party will help House campaigns is near, sources say. The two have agreed in principle about specific interventions the DNC can make in specific House races.
Paul Waldman in the Boston Globe (hat tip to Lynn Allen):
To see how Democrats have misunderstood the question of strength, we can examine Iraq -- likely to be the most prominent issue in the 2006 congressional elections and the 2008 presidential primaries and general election. It seems safe to assume that there were some Democrats who thought the Iraq war was a bad idea, but voted for it anyway out of fear that if they didn't, they would be called weak.
Three years later, with most Americans now believing the war was a mistake, do the Democrats who voted for the war look strong? Hardly. They look like pushovers who didn't have the guts to stand up to President Bush when it mattered most.
Yet today there are still some Democrats in Washington who believe their problem on national security can be solved by adopting positions as close as possible to those of the Republicans.
But strength doesn't flow from a policy proposal, and it can't be demonstrated with a hawkish vote. The public will be convinced that Democrats are strong when they stand up for their beliefs, take political risks, and don't run scared every time they get attacked by Republicans. Think about it this way: Martin Luther King Jr. was a pacifist, and no one ever called him weak.
In short, it isn't about voting the way you think the public wants you to vote, and it isn't about your 10-point plan. It's about who you are. That's just one lesson Democrats need to learn from Republicans.
Cheney Stays the Course on "Meet Tim Russert":
CHENEY: You’ve got Iraq and Al Qaeda, testimony from the Director of C.I.A. that there was indeed a relationship — Zarqawi in baghdad. et cetera. Then theBONUS: Meet the Ignoramus: Russert Lets Cheney Completely Off the Hook" by Stephen Kaus:
RUSSERT: The committee said there was no relationship. in fact saddam —
CHENEY: I haven’t seen the report. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet.
As usual, Cheney said that Sadaam "kicked out the inspectors." Russert apparently does not know that the inspectors returned on November 27 2002 and that Blix reported on the increasing cooperation several times, including a report on March 7, 2003 describing three months of inspections. It made sense to threaten war to get the inspectors back in. It did not make sense to attack anyway.
Russert also let Cheney say that he has not seen or had a chance to read the Senate Intelligence Committee Report released late Friday that says that not only was there no link between Sadaam and Al Qaeda, but that Sadaam was trying to kill or capture al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The report also faults the administration for relying on Ahmad Chalabi. Shouldn't Russert have asked why Cheney did not get a chance to read the report during the year that committee chairman Pat Roberts has been suppressing it?
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