Does anyone here seriously think that because we are pissed at leadership and members of Congress we will abandon the fight?
If so, they are remarkable in their tonedeafness to the problem being at hand.
A huge part of this issue that's being missed is that the Democrats completely forgot managing the message here.
NOW they want to tell us that there are some great amendments in there. NOW they want to message that all of this is because Bush vetoed the first bill.
A messaging problem is one of perception. One of language. One of strategy. One of tactics. And having diaries from Kos, Slaughter, et al., ad infinitum telling us to buck up, continues to miss the point entirely.
And when they repeat the points they are making in new diaries or updates, it just sounds like they are saying, "You're politically naive or don't understand Washington, so I'll say it s l o w e r."
The time to message that, "Bush vetoing the bill was [effectively] abandoning the troops in the field" has been ALL ALONG.
How difficult is it to actually say, "The President is fine with troops dying while he and the Iraq parliment go on summer vacation." Lather, rinse, repeat. Does anyone seriously think there's a counter message to that?
Leadership was so busy congratulating themselves on cutting off one of the heads of the Hydra, they forgot the other six are still functioning dangerously.
We haven't forgotten it.
And we won't.
We will still continue to fight. And fight, and fight. But, making our politicians better soldiers is part of that fight. So excuse us if we take some time to hold a few folks accountable for leaving the field of battle. And pardon us while we insist that the metaphoric soldiers train a little harder for the next round, and lengthen their attention span.
When Democratic leadership manages the message so poorly that Pat Buchanan's predictions about what the Democrats will do are both correct and prescient, there's a problem. Democrats making Pat Buchanan look smart and the Republicans look strong, is a problem.
Those problems needs to be fixed. Before the next round in this fight.