Brendan Miniter in the WSJ:

Today the sacrifices have been made, the election is over, a constitution is being hammered out, and all that’s left is victory–and victory is inevitable if the U.S. forces continue to stand up Iraqi forces while facing an unpopular insurgency that isn’t propped up by a large foreign power. Yet opposition to the war hasn’t abated. Indeed, in Congress it’s actually gotten more organized. In late June 50 House Democrats formed the Out of Iraq Caucus. The leaders of this cut-and-run caucus last week used Gen. Casey’s remarks to publicly lay out their proposed timetable for retreat.

We may come to miss the days when the Kerry campaign was calling the shots for the Democratic Party. At least then, with a national election to win, the party had a reason to stay disciplined, and Mr. Kerry, as the party’s standard barer, paid lip service to winning this war. Today Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat and an organizer of the Out of Iraq Caucus, feels no compunction to adhere to anything resembling a national consensus on the war.

The interesting question is where this is all heading for Democrats. There’s no election this year, so not much to lose in the short term by opposing the war and plenty of money to be raised by appealing to the Angry Left. But this isn’t a cost-free political strategy. One thing that the diminished coverage of the Iraq War indicates is that the U.S. is now making headway and is on the path to winning. Maybe the voters will forget who stood where once the war is won–much the way they did in electing Bill Clinton in 1992, after the Cold War. But that’s not a sure bet, nor is it even likely.

We understand that if it bleeds, it leads, but Miniter’s point is an ideological one. We are reminded of the Gallup Poll we wrote about a month ago. 74% of the American people have a lot of confidence in the military compared with 28% having confidence in the Mainstream Media — and, Ms. Waters take note: 22% in Congress:

The MSM’s megaphone gets smaller and smaller — not because they aren’t shouting, but because so many people have stopped listening.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 2nd, 2005 at 7:45 am and is filed under Democrats, General, Left of Left, MSM, Polling, Religion, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.