HOW THE HILL DEMOCRATS SOLD OUT ON IRAQ

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MATT TAIBBI, ROLLING STONE - Quietly, while Hillary Clinton and Barack
Obama have been inspiring Democrats everywhere with their rolling
bitchfest, congressional superduo Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have
completed one of the most awesome political collapses since Neville
Chamberlain. At long last, the Democratic leaders of Congress have
publicly surrendered on the Iraq War, just one year after being swept
into power with a firm mandate to end it.

Solidifying his reputation as one of the biggest pussies in U.S.
political history, Reid explained his decision to refocus his party's
energies on topics other than ending the war by saying he just couldn't
fit Iraq into his busy schedule. "We have the presidential election,"
Reid said recently. "Our time is really squeezed."

There was much public shedding of tears among the Democratic leadership,
as Reid, Pelosi and other congressional heavyweights expressed deep
sadness that their valiant charge up the hill of change had been
thwarted by circumstances beyond their control - that, as much as they
would love to continue trying to end the catastrophic Iraq deal, they
would now have to wait until, oh, 2009 to try again. "We'll have a new
president," said Pelosi. "And I do think at that time we'll take a fresh
look at it."

Pelosi seemed especially broken up about having to surrender on Iraq,
sounding like an NFL coach in a postgame presser, trying with a straight
face to explain why he punted on first-and-goal. "We just didn't have
any plays we liked down there," said the coach of the 0-15 Dems.
"Sometimes you just have to play the field-position game...."

In reality, though, Pelosi and the Democrats were actually engaged in
some serious point-shaving. Working behind the scenes, the Democrats
have systematically taken over the anti-war movement, packing the
nation's leading group with party consultants more interested in
attacking the GOP than ending the war. "Our focus is on the
Republicans," one Democratic apparatchik in charge of the anti-war
coalition declared. "How can we juice up attacks on them?"

The story of how the Democrats finally betrayed the voters who handed
them both houses of Congress a year ago is a depressing preview of
what's to come if they win the White House. And if we don't pay
attention to this sorry tale now, while there's still time to change our
minds about whom to nominate, we might be stuck with this same bunch of
spineless creeps for four more years. With no one but ourselves to
blame. . .

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/18349197/the_chicken_doves

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