The Dithercratic Party

Walter Shapiro writes in Salon that Democratic strategists worry that opposing the Bush-backed National Security Agency domestic spying program makes the party look weak. That is the same stoopid line of thinking that led many Democrats to back the Iraq war.

An excerpt:

The Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on illegal eavesdropping, scheduled to begin Feb. 6, come at a time of intense soul-searching by the lost-in-the-wilderness Democrats. Having failed to mount a coherent and consistent opposition to Samuel Alito -- the long-feared judicial nominee who would destroy the balance on the Supreme Court -- the party's leadership may be tempted to drop the wiretap issue if the first few days of hearings do not deliver any vote-getting revelations. But politics sooner or later becomes a test of character and not merely a paint-by-numbers exercise in low-risk electioneering. These are key weeks for the Democrats to decide whether they believe in anything other than polls and the frail hope that the Republicans will self-destruct.

(Hat tip to Taggan Goddard at Political Wire.)