Divided on the Details Only

E.J. Dionne gives the Democrats some advice. From today's Washington Post:

And to question this administration's optimistic claims is simply good sense in light of what has happened in Iraq up to now. After all, it's the administration's wildly optimistic assumptions that led us to fight a war with too few troops, too little planning, and Rodney King-like expectations that the Shiites, the Sunnis and the Kurds would all just get along. In any event, why shouldn't Democrats be divided on the war? So is the rest of the country. And so are Republicans.
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The real patriots are not those who fall into line behind everything Bush says. They are the Republican and Democratic doubters who have pressured Bush into realizing that he has limited time in Iraq and an imperative to speak more realistically.

E.J. hits the nail on the head for the Democratic party. While the Republicans, and the media right along with them, have shifted the Iraq argument to the apparent split in the Democratic party. The Democrats are now the party of cut-and-run versus time tables versus stay and pray. The big picture is that the Democrats were successful in changing the argument. Before Murtha, withdrawal was not being discussed in a meaningful way, today it is. The Democrats may be split on the details, but they are in agreement that something must be done to make things better in Iraq.

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