Friday, January 13, 2006

Democrats trying on their Whigs

Well, it certainly seems that the Democratic Party, by tearing itself apart over Iraq, is charting a course for Whig like oblivion, as Howard Kurtz reports in the Washington Post. Hat tip to Brainster.

On one side, you have such lawmakers as Jack Murtha and Nancy Pelosi saying the Iraq situation is such a mess that we must withdraw our troops. In the middle, you have Hillary Clinton and John Kerry saying that Bush has badly botched the war but we must stay the course while searching for better solutions. And then there are folks like Joe Lieberman, who are strongly supporting the president.

The 2000 veep nominee, if you hadn't noticed, is drawing all kinds of flak from liberal activists, some of whom would like to sabotage his reelection bid (Lieberman's old nemesis Lowell Weicker is already making noises about running). But in a larger sense, the argument over Lieberman has become a proxy war for where Democrats should stand on the overriding issues of Iraq and terrorism.


Worse, for the Democrats, is the developing "Impeach Bush" faction. This is a loser issue for the Democratic Party, since most Americans genuinely like the President, even if they don't agree with his policies. Secondly, if Bush is somehow impeached-- and even less likely, removed from office--that "Halliburton guy" moves from the other side of Washington into the White House.

Thirdly, the moonbats such as World Can't Wait and Code Pink, far outside the political mainstream, will push their costumed faces into the forefront of the "Impeach Bush" movement and ensure the end-result of this drive will be that it grinds to a screeching halt.

About Lowell Weicker's possible run to regain his seat in the Senate that he surrendered to Joe Lieberman back in 1988. That would be quite ironic, since it seems the Left is pushing Weicker to run. Lowell is a liberal Republican, and in 1988, the Buckley brothers and the National Review led the conservative drive to defeat Weicker--they supported Joe Lieberman, who won the race and has represented Connecticut ever since.

Interesting question: If the far Left of the Democratic Party does hop on a Weicker bandwagon, who will the National Review support?

And if Impeach Bush movement fails, oops, make that when it fails, then what do the Democrats do?

I'm not sure, but at some point, it may not matter.

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