David Brooks, Mega-Spinner

In his daily New York Times column, David Brooks provided this assessment of the president’s speech about his “new” Iraq policy:

“If the Democrats don’t like the U.S. policy on Iraq over the next six months, they have themselves partly to blame. There were millions of disaffected Republicans and independents ready to coalesce around some alternative way forward, but the Democrats never came up with anything remotely serious.
The liberals who favor quick exit never grappled with the consequences of that policy, which the Baker-Hamilton commission terrifyingly described. The centrists who believe in gradual withdrawal never explained why that wouldn’t be like pulling a tooth slowly. Joe Biden, who has the most intellectually serious framework for dealing with Iraq, was busy yesterday, at the crucial decision-making moment, conducting preliminary fact-finding hearings, complete with forays into Iraqi history.”

While the description of the dissonant democratic chorus is correct, the democrats are not to be blamed for inheriting this mess. True, many Dems initially voted for the war, and I hope that there will be a serious discussion of this in the future. But, more importantly, Brooks is at the forefront of a group of spinners who want us to forget that the situation as we face it now has somehow descended upon the Bush-Administration which is doing the best it can to solve it. No, no, and no: It has to be said loud and clearly that the responsibility for the situatin in Iraq lies with Bush. There must be accountability, and the Democrats in Congress aren’t the ones to take the blame for a lack of administrative perspective.

In fact, we hope that the Democrats will be relentless in their pursuit of the lies, deceptions, and outright constitutional crimes that led to this war and the range of “collateral damage” (fraud, corruption, embezzlement, etc.).

The questions remains: When will Brooks come clean and admit that he supported an administration, a president, who (mis)led us, the American people, into a situation for which we have to pay so dearly, in blood and in money.