The Discerning Texan

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Monday that a strongly positive report on progress on Iraq by Army Gen. David Petraeus likely would split Democrats in the House and impede his party's efforts to press for a timetable to end the war.

Clyburn, in an interview with the washingtonpost.com video program PostTalk, said Democrats might be wise to wait for the Petraeus report, scheduled to be delivered in September, before charting next steps in their year-long struggle with President Bush over the direction of U.S. strategy.

Clyburn noted that Petraeus carries significant weight among the 47 members of the Blue Dog caucus in the House, a group of moderate to conservative Democrats. Without their support, he said, Democratic leaders would find it virtually impossible to pass legislation setting a timetable for withdrawal.

"I think there would be enough support in that group to want to stay the course and if the Republicans were to stay united as they have been, then it would be a problem for us," Clyburn said. "We, by and large, would be wise to wait on the report."

Many Democrats have anticipated that, at best, Petraeus and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker would present a mixed analysis of the success of the current troop surge strategy, given continued violence in Baghdad. But of late there have been signs that the commander of U.S. forces might be preparing something more generally positive. Clyburn said that would be "a real big problem for us."

No doubt; I have said all along that the Democrats have gone "all in" on an American defeat, a very dangerous place for an American political party to be. When you put your party in a position of having to root for America's failure or defeat in a war (or for the worsening of the economy...) in order to increase your power base, you have effectively come to a place where you are no longer "preserving, protecting or defending the Constitution of the United States..."; the only thing our despicable excuse for a Congress is working to "preserve" at the moment is its precarious hold on power. And even that is not going well. It appears the Democrats may have bet on the wrong horse in this War.

When your only hope for political success is to try and engineer an American Defeat at home (because the tide is turning on the ground in Iraq) you are fast approaching a place where the public will drop you like a hot rock.

Labels: Defeatocrats, Democrat Sabotage, Iraq, Surrender Caucus