Diversity and victory!

In this Washington Post piece, Nancy Pelosi offers a couple of interesting insights.

The first is that the Dems will not produce a unified position on Iraq in 2006, saying

“There is no one Democratic voice . . . and there is no one Democratic position”.

I applaud Pelosi giving permission to her party members the freedom to differ, but this will predictably reduce the efficacy of the party. The Dems’ typical offering is unified opposition. In the absence of any actual positions, that is all they’ve got.

The Dems are on the cusp of being even more fragmented on Iraq now that there has been an enormously successful election. This will divide the party into two camps, those that are sincerely on the side of progress and those that simply oppose Bush.

The latter half is the party base, and I would speculate that it is where most of the money comes from. Think George Soros and Peter Lewis. But they are also out of step with most Americans and the truly well-meaning Dems like Joe Lieberman.

Pelosi’s strategy is this -- she is betting that Iraq will no longer be portrayed in the headlines as a festering boil. This election quite possibly reflects a corner being turned, a positive one, which is a losing proposition for Dems. Thus, it is no longer a party thrust.

Which brings us to the second notable point of the article, which is Pelosi’s definition of victory -- successfully hamstringing Bush:

Pelosi said Democrats scored significant victories recently, the biggest coming on Social Security, on which she said Democratic opposition to Bush’s proposed private or personal accounts blocked any hopes the White House had for changing the government retirement insurance program this year.

“Not only did we take him down on that, but we took down a lot of his credibility as being somebody who cared about ’people like me,’ ” she said.

Victory defined as the other guy losing. Did Pelosi or the Dems put forward anything to make anyone’s life better, anywhere? Victory!

UPDATE: James Taranto is already on it -- and even chose the same quotes as I! ;)

UPDATE ay-gain: Stanley Kurtz fleshes out this idea.

Comments

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

Pelosi is despicable.

Just found your blog through an Instapundit link. Keep up the good work.

Squiggler
So. Calif.