The Democrat's Penchant For Never Failing To Miss An Opportunity To Miss An Opportunity Only Continues

The Democrats have an amazing party. You'd think that they could take adavantage of all the disarray of the Republicans, "Culture Of Corruption", ineptness at the Bush White House, as well as screwball far right Republicans, such as New York Representative, Peter King, who on FOX News Sunday today actually called for the prosecution of the New York Times because of a recent story dealing with the covert banking intelligence program. Somwhow Mr. King supports prior restraint of the American free press, but fortunately it was a far wiser Republican Senator Arlen Spector who scolded King for this wacko viewpoint never before supported by a major U.S. court. Apparently the qualifications standards for Congress are far lower than the Senate standards. The Senate at least has a few wise leaders.

But last week, the Democratic penchant to never fail to "miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity" were once again reborn. The Democrats promoted two failed attempts to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq that ended up putting them back on the defensive rather than taking advantage of the public disenchantment for the war.

John Kerry sounded so sure of himself when he argued for his convuluded reasoning to place U.S. troops outside of Iraq in a goofy "redeployment" proposal that won the support of all of just 13 senators. A littel less goofy "Sense of the Senate" proposal by Senator Carl Levin failed as well, with only 39 votes. Unfortunately Iraq is where so much of the MidEast problems currently are. And with Iran only earshot over the other side of the Strait Of Hormuz, just where in world Senator Kerry believes that U.S. should better deploy it's troops used is a really great question. But Iraq is unfortunately as close to possible to where many of the MidEast problems are now.

It is no mystery that likely the Bush White House will send some U.S. troops home just before the 2006 elections and reap some political benefit from this Even Senator Levin noted this on FOX today. Yet both he and Kerry pursued their losing amendments in the Senate. The Democrats managed to put themselves enough on the defensive this week to appear untrustworthy and "not ready for primetime" on foreign policy matters to more than a few voters. And even the "Miami Seven" arrests, which seem more like the Keystone Cops than anything, the capture of these Al Qaeda "wanna be's" only also strengthens the Bush White House's meddling into civil liberties as somehow justified in the mind of many voters. This hurts yet another Democratic talking point.

If the Democrats plan any sort of a comeback this November, then they will need far better issue management skills then they have displayed so far. Unlike Karl Rove who may represent the worst of the worst to many Americans, Rove at least has some great political instincts. The Democrats lack such a cunning strategist.

The Democrats have some great positions on domestic policy issues. But in the realm of foreign policy and Iraq, they only continue to leave themselves out to dry by promoting notions just this side of goofy and reckless, and unbelievably actually make even Bush look nearly professional and statesmanlike by comparison, which is quite an achievement.

The Democrats aren't done for yet. This was just one crummy week for them politically. But with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, pushing for a bold and sweeping peace proposal, which may allow for some U.S. troops to come home if it has any chance of success, the Democrats could find the voter anger over Iraq blunted somewhat as an issue, but leave some lingering questions about whether they can manage foreign policy or keep Americans safer than some voters may still think that the Republicans can.

If the Democrats continue to follow their awful penchant for never failing to "miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity", then they could end up far short of their hopeful expectations once again in the November elections.