Stop Me Before I Vote Again

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the paper, St Ignatius of the Washpost indulges in a little hagiography of his own:

An Opening for the Democrats
By David Ignatius

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the architect of the Democratic victory in November's congressional elections, watched President Bush's Iraq speech Wednesday night like the coach of an opposing debate team: "Tired," he said. "Too wooden." "Doesn't fill the screen."

Nobody understands the new Washington power dynamic better than Emanuel, who helped create it....

With House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Emanuel plans to use Bush's Iraq speech to pose what amounts to a vote of "no confidence" in Bush's leadership -- framing the new strategy as a congressional motion and voting it up or down.... Rather than try to restrict funds for the troops... Emanuel instead favors a proposal to set strict standards for readiness -- which would make it hard to finance the troop surge in Iraq without beefing up the military as a whole. The idea is to position the Democrats as friends of the military....

A key trend [last November] was what [Emanuel] calls "suburban populism."

Ask about universal health care, and he shakes his head....

Don't look to Emanuel's Democrats for solutions on Iraq. It's Bush's war, and as it splinters the structure of GOP power, the Democrats are waiting to pick up the pieces.

Love that phrase "suburban populism". And to give Ignatius his due, the observation "Don't look to the Democrats for soloutions on Iraq" is what we've been saying here since the site went up.