Antiwar Organizations increasingly Frustrated with Dems

Politico has a piece on Harry Reid's latest effort to appease the antiwar groups that are threatening to give his party plenty of trouble:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) traveled to New York on Monday and huddled with leaders of the anti-Iraq-war movement, his latest effort to reassure this increasingly restive group that Democrats are doing everything they can to end the war.

Reid’s session, which was not publicly disclosed, comes as he and other congressional leaders are trying to maneuver between two conflicting political goals: enlisting enough support from Republican lawmakers to force the Bush administration to change its strategy, without compromising so much that anti-war activists will complain of a sell-out.

In the Monday session, according to several people who were either present or briefed by attendees, Reid tried to explain his limitations and pleaded with anti-war leaders to keep their energies focused on Republicans, not Democrats.

The Reid mission reflected the paradox bedeviling the anti-war movement. It is powerful enough to command constant care and feeding by the Democratic Party’s presidential candidates and congressional leaders. But so far it has proven largely impotent in forcing policy changes.

What’s more, five years after the congressional vote authorizing Bush’s march to war, opponents still have had only mixed success in mobilizing a mass protest movement.

Impatience rising, some activists are urging that Democrats who are not aggressive enough in confronting Bush on Iraq themselves be challenged with primary opponents or third-party candidacies in 2008.

Last weekend was supposed to be the weekend for major antiwar rallies, and yet the turnout was dismal nationwide. Despite all the efforts of antiwar organizations, the public at large just isn't that worked up over the Iraq War. They may not like it, but they're not willing to march around and act the fool to protest it. They're more than willing to leave that to the aging hippies and drug-addled youth who seem to make up the majority of any antiwar protest.

Because of the lack of public support for the protests, the Dems feel they still have some breathing room on the Iraq issue, even if it means more compromises with the president and GOP that will tick off the antiwar leaders. Who really cares what Cindy Sheehan says anyway, and MoveOn so thoroughly marginalized themselves with the "Betray Us" ad that it may be awhile before they are once again an organization to be taken seriously.

Meanwhile the Dems will continue to have their little meetings where they pat the antiwar leaders on the head and tell them everything will be okay.