"Iraq: Rahm Emanuel Gets It"

mcjoan on Kos:

And when Rahm Emanuel gets it, that's good news for Dems. Here's some key excerpts from a policy memo he wrote to Dem leadership on the Iraq supplemental:

Although he is not saying anything new, the President's recent efforts have generated significant news coverage, but polling shows his efforts have done little to bolster his claims or generate support for his plan from the American people. Instead, the President remains incredibly weak and at odds with public opinion. Despite the attacks from the White House, nearly 70% of the American people continue to support our plan for a new direction in Iraq and a responsible, strategic redeployment of American troops over the course of the next year....

As we move forward, we should not lose sight of the fact that nearly 70% of the country supports our plan for Iraq. The country is more engaged in this issue than any other, and has paid close attention to the plans offered by Democrats and the President. The country has made a conscious decision to support our approach. With that support at our backs, Democrats must:

* Continue to pressure the President to negotiate with Congressional leaders on the Iraq supplemental spending bill.
* Highlight the President's stay-the-course, status quo strategy for Iraq
* Highlight the President's willingness to provide Iraq with an open-ended commitment of U.S. troops
* Emphasize the President now walking away from the benchmarks he laid out in his January speech.
* Remind the country that Congressional Republicans are willing to rubberstamp the President’s stay-the-course policies but have no plan of their own for Iraq....

Given the Republicans' unwillingness to offer their own alternative or plan for funding our troops and changing direction in Iraq, Democrats must remain resolute while publicly urging the President to join us for meaningful negotiations on the supplemental. While we will never reject out of hand any offer from the President to meet and discuss the supplemental, we must insist on meaningful negotiations with the White House.

It's almost as if he's been reading the blogs. Read the whole memo at TPMCafe. Dems, do what Rahm says. Hang tough.