Dems Struggling to Deal With Iraq Successes

One Dem Congressman recently stated that success in Iraq would be a problem for them, and that's just what it's proving to be. The Dem plans to wail about Iraq during the August recess has turned into a praise session from leading Dems for the work our troops have done and the progress the surge has generated. In order to create new conflict, the tactic has been changed to criticism of the Iraqi government, with people like Dem Sen. Carl Levin even calling for the overthrow of the current government :

Democratic leaders in Congress had planned to use August recess to raise the heat on Republicans to break with President Bush on the Iraq war. Instead, Democrats have been forced to recalibrate their own message in the face of recent positive signs on the security front, increasingly focusing their criticisms on what those military gains have not achieved: reconciliation among Iraq's diverse political factions.

And now the Democrats, along with wavering Republicans, will face an advertising blitz from Bush supporters determined to remain on offense. A new pressure group, Freedom's Watch, will unveil a month-long, $15 million television, radio and grass-roots campaign today designed to shore up support for Bush's policies before the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, lays out a White House assessment of the war's progress. The first installment of Petraeus's testimony is scheduled to be delivered before the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees on the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a fact both the administration and congressional Democrats say is simply a scheduling coincidence.

The leading Democratic candidates for the White House have fallen into line with the campaign to praise military progress while excoriating Iraqi leaders for their unwillingness to reach political accommodations that could end the sectarian warfare.

The president is having none of it. He stated quite emphatically that the government of Iraq will be chosen by the people of Iraq and not by members of Congress. The successes over there are going to cause significant rifts between the major Dem leaders and the antiwar left that's calling for surrender at all costs.