Late but Still Potent

We had guests in from out of town over the weekend (and don't worry, a good time was had by all), so I'm just now getting a chance to read Frank Rich's Sunday column, "Someone Tell the President the War Is Over." No surprise, but Rich (again) accurately points out what's been staring us all in the face. Neocons are starting to turn on each other, the Prez is in trouble, and even his stalwart supporters are taking a step or two back.

These are the tea leaves that all Republicans, not just Chuck Hagel, are reading now. Newt Gingrich called the [Paul] Hackett near-victory [in his race for an Ohio Congressional seat] "a wake-up call." The resolutely pro-war New York Post editorial page begged Mr. Bush (to no avail) to "show some leadership" by showing up in Ohio to salute the fallen and their families. A Bush loyalist, Senator George Allen of Virginia, instructed the president to meet with Cindy Sheehan, the mother camping out in Crawford, as "a matter of courtesy and decency." Or, to translate his Washingtonese, as a matter of politics. Only someone as adrift from reality as Mr. Bush would need to be told that a vacationing president can't win a standoff with a grief-stricken parent commandeering TV cameras and the blogosphere 24/7.

There's no way Bush can turn it around. The evidence started to pile up more than a year ago, but it's only now becoming as clear as it should have been then.

In an interview with Tim Russert early last year, Mr. Bush said, "The thing about the Vietnam War that troubles me, as I look back, was it was a political war," adding that the "essential" lesson he learned from Vietnam was to not have "politicians making military decisions." But by then Mr. Bush had disastrously ignored that very lesson; he had let Mr. Rumsfeld publicly rebuke the Army's chief of staff, Eric Shinseki, after the general dared tell the truth: that several hundred thousand troops would be required to secure Iraq.

I know I always say this, but the whole thing is worth your time if you haven't already read it.