Democrat lack of coherence on Iraq exposed

Bronwen Maddox:

It’s a bad start, and the risk is that the Democrats are going to throw away their big chance.

This week has brought comedy to their efforts, as the new Democrat head of a congressional committee on intelligence proved unable to tell Sunni from Shia, incorrectly maintained that al-Qaeda belonged to the second persuasion, and stumbled into paralysed silence when asked the same question about the Shia group Hezbollah.

The bigger problem is the lack of Democrat strategy exposed by the past five weeks since the congressional elections — and above all, the lack of anything coherent to say on Iraq.

The choice of Silvestre Reyes, the Democrat who will now head the House of Representatives committee on intelligence, is the latest misjudgment by Nancy Pelosi, whose arrival as the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives triggered so much excited anticipation.

Even before Reyes’ display of ignorance, in response to questions from a congressional reporter, Pelosi’s decision to pick him for the key post was controversial. She had passed over the committee’s most senior Democrat.

This follows the breathtaking mistake of Pelosi’s first moves after the party’s November 7 electoral victory, when she tried to insert a longtime ally as her chief deputy, despite questions about his opposition to the reform of ethics rules, and overwhelming House support for his rival.

But the concerns about strategy stretch beyond these early, inept decisions by a single leader.

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There is more criticism from the Brit observer. The Democrats have actually been incoherent on Iraq since the 2004 presidential campaign. They have not come up with any better ideas since. As military experts started pummeling they latest suggestions they act like the ISG report contains their ideas, but it does not. It is a straddle that the conservatives knocked early and often and now the liberals will start piling on from the other direction.