Getting out in front of the good news - to spin it into bad news

From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 23 — A stark assessment released Thursday by the nation’s intelligence agencies depicts a paralyzed Iraqi government unable to take advantage of the security gains achieved by the thousands of extra American troops dispatched to the country this year.

If the issue weren't so serious this would be funny. The surge is working. It is doing exactly what it was designed to do. This surprises only the Left, those in elected office and those running the propaganda organs (otherwise known as the mainstream media).

This is a problem because the Left pronounced the surge a failure before it had even began. So what do they do be honest and admit that they were wrong and begin supporting the war effort or slither around looking for an angle that will let them still claim that we are losing?

To ask the question is to answer it. This is the Left we are talking about, honor is as alien to their nature as tolerance is to a Wahabi mullah.

So the Democrat response to the good news from Iraq is to be expected. Unfortunately the response of the "Me Too Republicans" is also to be expected. This sad group of people are nominal members of the Republican Party but they constantly walk around with a moistened finger raised aloft to gage the winds of public opinion. They are only too ready willing and eager to fall into line behind Democrats crying "me too, me too" when they feel the slightest bit of heat from a public opinion poll or a New York Times editorial.

The Me Too Republican position is perfectly represented by Sen. John Warner. From today's Washington Post:

Sen. John W. Warner, one of the most influential Republican voices in Congress on national security, called on President Bush yesterday to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq in time for Christmas as a new intelligence report concluded that political leaders in Baghdad are "unable to govern effectively."

Warner's declaration -- after the Virginia senator's recent four-day trip to the Middle East -- roiled the political environment ahead of a much-anticipated progress report to be delivered Sept. 11 by Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. Although Warner had already broken with Bush's strategy, this was the first time he endorsed pulling troops out by a specific date.

In fact Warner has taken Me Too Republicanism to a new low by actually trying to get out in front of the Democrats and lead the nation in its march off of the cliff. Warner (who is squirrely on a good day) his moistened finger is telling him that Virginia is trending blue due to the rise in population in the urbanized northern part of the state (which is little more than a suburb of Washington DC).

For those inclined to worry about the situation with the government in Iraq I remind you that there was absolutely no possibility of a political solution to the nation's problems until the military situation is brought under control. The members of Iraq's elected government, the local tribal leaders and clerics and the average man in the street are all waiting to see who is going to win the military battle.

This is nothing more than the normal functioning of their human survival instinct. They are not going to bet on America only to be left twisting in the breeze like the Vietnamese who trusted us. Show them an America resolute and willing to make whatever commitment of time, money and blood necessary to win the day and the political difficulties will largely evaporate.