North Star Writers Group

We are still a month away from General David Petraeus' report to Congress on progress in Iraq, and Democrats are already trashing its credibility, before it has even been given. From Speaker Nancy Pelosi accusing the White House of hiding behind Petraeus to a Washington Post column calling it "a White House con job in the making," the left is doing its usual adept job of spewing treasonous rhetoric over things that only exist in their Bush-hating conspiracy-riddled minds.

Perhaps the worst came from Rep. Rahm Emanuel: “After years of slogans and sound bites, Americans deserve an even-handed assessment of conditions in Iraq. Sadly, we will only receive a snapshot from the same people who told us the mission was accomplished and the insurgency was in its last throes. We've spent hundreds of billions of dollars and lost thousands of lives in Iraq. An honest report from our generals and diplomats about the status of the war isn't too much to ask."

As a former Clinton administration hack, Emanuel does know something about presidential dishonesty and the deliberate misleading of a Congress led by the other party. So I'll give him that much. But as an elected representative, having that closed a mind and that militantly partisan an attitude doesn't serve his constituents or his country. And what is it about good news that is so awful? Is he so full of hatred that he can't even see one sliver of the bigger picture and be grateful for it?

No, as usual, Democrat complaints reveal much more about them than their ostensible target. So completely invested are they in America's defeat that they can't take the chance things will eventually turn out well in Iraq. Thus, they undermine the effort, and when that fails, they prematurely trash a report before they know if they even have to, so determined are they to force the desired outcome or at least the appearance thereof.

Moreover, there is an infantile childishness about it all. If the only report you'll accept is one that says precisely what you want it to, and any report that does not is automatically a fraud and a put-up job, you have all the maturity of the average four-year-old. (That is, if saying so isn't an insult to average four-year-olds.) What's next, a screaming temper tantrum because the House cafeteria doesn't serve what you like for lunch? If the report is positive, are Democrats going to stand in a corner with their arms folded and hold their collective breath until they turn blue?

It's tempting to laugh about this, as it is so silly. But these folks, such as they are, are supposed to be leaders. The offices they hold call for handling oneself with seriousness and maturity in public, if not in private as well. Not to mention the subject matter, which is the most serious of all – war and national security.

And how do Democrats handle themselves? By essentially throwing verbal spitballs at a president they don't like, simply because they didn't get their way or have things turn out how they would have liked. This is barely tolerable on the school playground, much less at the highest levels of government. The least they could do is treat both Iraq and President Bush with deserved gravity – their objections might even get better traction if not made with such utter obnoxiousness.

But that is apparently more than Democrats are capable of. And all because success in Iraq will wreck the Democrats' credibility come November 2008, as well as infuriate an off-the-deep-end base that, for all of their endless efforts to placate them, remains completely implacable.

Is it so much to ask that Democrats please grow up?

Click here to talk to our writers and editors about this column and others in our discussion forum.

To e-mail feedback about this column, click here. If you enjoy this writer's work, please contact your local newspapers editors and ask them to carry it.

This is Column # DKK074. Request permission to publish here.