The Dems Are Just Being Themselves

Bill Kristol has a piece in Time Magazine which is entitled "How the Democrats Have Lost Their Cool". He describes the rapid evolution from moderate to radical:

When last seen before election day 2006, the Democratic Party seemed the very soul of moderation. And they stayed the course for the next two months. House Democrats refused to replace their No. 2, the moderate Steny Hoyer, with the antiwar Jack Murtha. Speaker Nancy Pelosi emphasized her maternal and grandmaternal qualities as she shepherded through the House a modest and popular agenda of ethics reform, a minimum-wage hike and cheaper drugs for seniors. The Democratic presidential flavor of the month in the shopping season before Christmas was the fresh-faced, not-too-partisan Barack Obama.

But in the past few weeks, the Democrats have gone wild. The mushy domestic agenda is quickly disappearing beneath a tide of antiwar agitation in Congress. Joe Biden is leading the way, seeking to have as one of the first acts of the new Democratic Senate a nonbinding resolution condemning a troop increase in Iraq. Others want action, not just words. On the presidential side of the party, Hillary Clinton has gone at breakneck speed from being a mild critic of the war to calling for a legislated troop cap and threatening to cut off funds for the Iraqi army. Obama and John Edwards are cheerfully one-upping her by demanding a firm schedule for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. What happened?

Kristol has a much lengthier answer than I do, but I think the answer is very simple. They stopped pretending to be something they weren't and reverted to their roots. Dems, who are generally driven by emotions, just couldn't keep swallowing their feelings and mimicking moderates. Eventually all that anti-war rage had to come out. I'm surprised it took as long as it did.