Pin the tail on the donkey

I found this at J. W. Harrison's blog Largest Minority:

I know I’m preaching to the choir, but by now it ought to be painfully obvious that the Democratic Party is a pro-war party. What’s different between them and the Republicans is that this pro-war party has an anti-war base. This leads the Democratic leadership to create the façade that they’re simply inept at stopping the war, rather than successful at prolonging it with continued funding. The Democrats are known for being weak and conceding to conservatives the same way Alberto Gonzales or Bush are known for being incompetent or stupid. It’s all an act to keep their real motives hidden. Both sides play on the unquestioning loyalty of their constituents to accomplish the exact opposite goals they promised to achieve.

By dropping the timelines for withdrawal, the true motives of the Democratic Party have been revealed to the Democratic base. More Democrats are finally waking up to the fact that the “good cop” and the “bad cop” are on the same team. Yet some naïve voters and bloggers are still praying for the Dems to save the world. It’s not going to happen. The Democratic Party holds allegiance only to money and votes, not to any ethical set of ideals.

That seems to have hit the nail right on the head, articulating the suspicions of many of us. I don't think it is preaching to the converted, however. If we already knew this we wouldn't have acted as we had. Rather than deserting the Democrats to create a third party, the best path may still be to infiltrate the party (or ruling parties) and change it from within, the tactic favored by the other big durable 20th century multiethnic autocracies of China and the USSR. We need to do the same thing in the United States. Also, throw out the Democrats who voted to fund the war at the primary stage.

Actually, the government site (THOMAS) is too messy for actual use. I found this Sourcewatch site which seems to be better. It links to these roll call votes at the Washington Post:
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/110/house/1/votes/425/
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/110/senate/1/votes/181/
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/110/house/1/votes/424/

The best hope now may lie in the Iraqi politicians actually listening to their people and humiliating the Americans by asking them to leave, since they are too proud to leave the country without the further humiliation of being kicked out.