Yesterday we were reminded of the free world's unique ability to defeat itself when dissatisfied senators paraded the Sunday news circuit and leveled criticisms — more of it overemotional language than substantive advice — at the president. Republicans Chuck Hagel and Richard Lugar share the distinction of being two of the most backwards-looking senators, neither particularly willing to depart from the failed American Near East policies of appeasement and moral indifference. Hagel can be best known for holding his veteran status against civilians with whom he disagrees; Lugar's most notable contribution to the political debate this year was to suggest a retraction of the Coalition Provisional Authority's power transfer to Iraqis almost immediately after April's failed terrorist insurrections began, a decision that looks even more panicked now than it did then. True to form, both men were short on help and long on scolds. Interestingly, their detraction of reconstruction funding was an issue of flat monetary amounts and not practical application, a debate that could easily be won by proponents of the Commander's Emergency Response Program.
Senator John McCain, though not without a measure of grandstanding, made a specific request of the administration that the insurgency in central Iraq be crushed by Americans now, and not by an Iraqi-led force within the next three-and-a-half months as described by General Richard Myers. Unlike his colleagues, McCain did not co-opt the Democratic Party's emerging rhetorical line that good news from Iraq is fabrication.
That canard is an interesting change of course for Democrats, the left and the mainstream press. Before now these parties were content to offer a slanted picture of Iraq that focused on the otherwise geographically confined nature of terrorists, omitted countless stories of small-but-effective public works successes and overwhelming evidence of Iraqis' investment in a democratic future. Now — and quite suddenly — the president's opponents have sacrificed their standing in the politics of can-do to commit themselves to concentrated discouragement, a sign that courageous optimism can cut through any volume of hopelessness.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win"? It looks that way. President Bush has much to owe to an intrepid reelection platform, and the left apparently believes his message troubling enough to target directly. Why the left didn't see the right's conviction and raise it is a mystery until one simply accepts that the left cannot bring itself to believe that American power alone is a force for good in the world. Most Americans, however, would agree with the president. Considering John Kerry's poor showing with defeatism, whatever light bruises Bush suffers from this assault will be worth victory through electoral repudiation.
VERY SENATORIAL: Now Richard Lugar is praising the Bush administration and chastising John Kerry. Asks Jim Geraghty, "what the heck got into Dick Lugar?" Rather: what got taken out, by whom, and with what well-deserved string of expletives.
