Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

Don Surber notes the irony of the latest official report on military progress in Iraq:

Not trusting the military, Congressional Democrats set up an independent panel led by retired Marine 4-star James Jones to issue a pre-emptive report on progress in Iraq, to blunt the impact of any good news from Gen. David Petraeus. The Gen. Jones panel reported today: The Surge is working!

Surber explores the political impact of the Jones report - a panel created by Congressional Democrats has undermined the Congressional Democrats' political plans by reporting that the surge is, in fact, working. As Surber points out:

That loud gulp you heard is from the 49 Democratic senators, independent Bernie Sanders and Republican Chuck Hagel. Remember, the No. 3 House Democrat, James Clyburn of South Carolina, said in July that good news from Iraq is "a real big problem for us."

Congressional Democrats - well, most of them, anyway - have been cheerleaders for American defeat and retreat in Iraq, viewing it as a path to increasing their majority in the next election. Any suggestion that the surge is working must immediately be batted down - even when it comes from a panel they set up for that very purpose.

Is there any wonder that just 3 percent of the American people approve of the way the Democratic-lead Congress is handling Iraq, while 27 percent approve of President Bush's handling of the war? Americans don't like to be at war, and they like even less a war that isn't going well. But try to force America into surrender and retreat, especially when victory is increasingly possible, as the Democrats are trying to do, gets you a 3-percent approval rating.

The longer the Democrats try to force America to lose a war it can win, the less worried I am about the fate of Republicans in the 2008 election, provided Republicans nominate candidates for the House, Senate and White House who are committed to victory in the war on terror.