Dems: Tell MoveOn To Do Just That

It is time for leading Democrats to tell MoveOn.Org to move on.

This group of self-proclaimed experts on the war is hurting the party. The full-page ad in the New York Times ripping Gen. David Petraeus was just what the Republicans were looking for to take the heat off them on continuing the failed policy in Iraq.

MoveOn doesn't get it. The general is really following orders from his civilian leaders. This is the Bush-Cheney war. They are responsible to the voters, and the GOP-ers in Congress were delighted to go on the offensive over this offensive ad. What is MoveOn thinking?

Democrats, including presidential hopefuls, are being too timid about speaking out on MoveOn. This group does not speak as one for the party and should not be allowed to exaggerate its importance.

The stars are in line for a Democratic victory next year at the presidential and congressional level. An unpopular president has bestowed a difficult legacy for the GOP presidential nominee.

The main issues will be Iraq, Iraq, and Iraq. The GOP scandals will haunt the party's candidates on the family values front.

Yet so-called liberal organizations like MoveOn are willing to make it difficult. They do not understand or want to hear about the math of the presidential veto, a weapon Bush still holds despite the Democratic victories last year.

Democrats are stymied by Republican intransigence in the Senate and Bush's veto pen.

Some antiwar zealots are even taking full credit for those victories last fall as though voters who knew nothing about MoveOn weren't voting for Democratic candidates.

Political writers used to joke that Democrats, on the cusp of a victory, could not organize a two-car funeral. Or that the party loyalists formed a firing squad in a circle.

MoveOn seems intent on making substance out of those jokes.

By John W. Mashek