Gloating

In the 2004 elections I wanted Howard Dead as the Democratic candidate because I thought he was the only one with enough bile in him to stand up to President Bush's bile. I still think he would have made a serious run at it.

Today, with Harriet Miers withdrawal from consideration as a Supreme Court justice, the poetntial for someone close to the presidency to be indicted by a federal gran jury, our Iraq occupation continuing to bleed the blood of our young warriors, there is glaoting among partisan Democrats.

I am a partisan Democrat, but I am not gloating. In fact I think I agree with Nicholas Kristof who says that he thinks indictments of either Karl Rove or Scooter Libby for outing Valerie Plame or for dissembling about it in testimony, is going to simply ape the unconscionable partisan zeal of the Republicans in seeking to destroy Bill Clinton for White Water or for sexual indiscretion.

And as for the Supreme Court nomination, I fear the vitriol and anxiety that may now cause the President to put forward someone who will please the religious right and enrage the rest of us. Is that something I would find helpful for the nation?

I believe we are, at some point, going to have to face the reality that we cannot succeed in the mission we set for ourselves in Iraq and figure out the best way to withdraw. We have now created such a horror, for ourselves and likely for the middle east and the rest of the world, that the chances of our leaving with any honor or sense of achievement seems dim.

Much as I oppose the entire agenda of this adminstration, and hope to replace it with a progressive, compassionate one, I want it to succeed. I don't believe it can.

But I am not happy about that. Or gloating over it. I am grieving.