With the Congressional elections drawing ever closer, it's become fashionable for various media outlets to run stories on the 'Can the Democrats Take Back the House?' theme. The fact that this is even a question shows, i think, the abject failure of the Democratic party to frame the public debate, particularly wrt the current quagmire. Illustrative of this is the recent cry from many Democrats for the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld, the idea being that his rather shocking incompetence has put us in the position we are today.
Now, there's no question that Rumsfeld has systematically made an utter cockup of the Iraq affair, from initial planning to all stages of execution. This is the sort of thing for which one should be canned, and such a canning should be supported. However, such efforts draw attention away from two important points: 1. The Iraq was was not only incompetently executed; but was unnecessary, inimical to the GWOT and achieved through a systematic and sustained campaign of lies fousted by the Administration on the American people, the UN and the world generally. 2. Rumsfeld works for Bush; Rumsfeld's polices are Bush's policies, as are the failures of those policies.
Perhaps if Congressional Democrats could find a way to get these two glaring truths into the public sphere, we'd have somewhat less discouraging headlines.