Who woulda thunk it? Tim Russert comparing the present situation in Iraq to Vietnam! When Karl Rove has lost Tim, he had better start preparing for the end of Republican rule in Washington - that is, if he's not too preoccupied with all the trouble surrounding his treasonous outing of Valerie Plame as CIA nonofficial cover operative.

Strangely, there was little talk of Cindy Sheehan's continuing vigil in Crawford, Texas, where she waits to speak about her late son who died in Iraq with the former Texas governor, who had to flee briefly to Idaho to take a vacation from his vacation. Her simple request for a brief chat continues to garner press coverage -- as well as a hastily-prepared counter-protest which seems more obsessed with trashing Ms. Sheehan's character than supporting the Misadministration's Iraq policy. In fact, there has an embarrassing bit of infighting among protesters -- but what else should one expect from a gaggle of goons who seem happy to call Ms. Sheehan the "bitch in the ditch"?

Oh well ... here's the dirt on Steph ...

ABC This Week: Steph ramps up the tough

We were pleased to see that George Stephanopoulos made two senators on very opposite sides of the political divide fairly uncomfortable the Sunday morning. We were not pleased to see that Steph is adopting a few tricks from the Tim Russert playbook - ambush video clips in particular - but at least Steph seems willing to turn up the heat on Republican politicians as well as on Democrats.

Steph began ABC This Week with a wrap-up of developments in Iraq over the last day; their correspondent said that despite the draft Iraqi constitution having been approved, a number of Sunni leaders - and one very popular Shiite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr - say they will oppose it.

Stephanopoulos' first guest, Senator Joseph Biden, said that if the Sunnis "and that entire portion of the country opts out of this process, that's a formula for Civil War!" Biden wonders how much of this process is going to cause Iraqis to take up arms and fight; "It is impossible to tell this moment. I can tell you how the administration is spending it: the administration is spending it by suggesting what really is a lot of Sunnis that are really for this. They're just afraid to speak up and say anything now. There is some division among the Shia."

Stephanopoulos pointed out that Islamic law will be a main source of law and legislation (a fact that many pundits and politicians - including Senator Pat Roberts, who tried to outright deny it on CNN Late Edition) . He then played a video of a leading Iraqi advocate of women's rights being praised by George W. Bush - Raja Kuzai - a woman who has now turned against George W. Bush. Biden reminded viewers that a year and a half ago on This Week that he had warned that this administration's actions of removing Saddam may result in a nation that is ruled by Islamic law. Stephanopoulos almost screamed as he stopped Biden's answer, trying to place the blame for all of the delays and problems with the Iraqi Constitution on Moqtada al-Sadr. Biden said that Kuzai had warned the former Texas governor about the situation, particularly on the appointment of judges to Iraqi civil courts, appointments which would include clerics. "They rejected every positive proposal when put forward by me on your program and others-how to avoid getting into this situation-and they still have no concrete plan as to how we're going to proceed other than hope and pray that the Constitution is accepted by the Iraqi people which seems to me like a tough bet."

Stephanopoulos then cut to be a video clip of Gary Hart saying that he hoped somebody in the Democratic party will admit that they were misled by President Bush; Biden, who was clearly miffed at Stephanopoulos' ambush, said he resented the manner in which Stephanopoulos had foisted Hart to embarrass the Democratic Party, and that he had been at the forefront of criticizing Bush. "I said we must set benchmarks. The president must tell us precisely how long it will take to train the Iraqis. I pointed out on every program that he misled us, he misrepresented, he misunderstands!"

(We have been openly critical about Biden's support for the war and sometimes apparent fealty to the former Texas governor. Biden's gambit, in the form of that angry retort to George Stephanopoulos, was in fact a well timed and clever move to make Biden appear tough on the administration's Iraqi policy and the president himself. But Biden did not go far enough - he should have called Mr. Bush and his cadre of military and policy advisers the liars that they are. )

Biden continued, spelling out a long litany of Bush's failures, misstatements, and lack of engagement. "I have been a constant critic of this administration's policy. I offered concrete specific alternatives to precisely what the president had offered."

(Again, this was a good move by Biden that could have been executed a little bit better: he should have spelled out his concrete specific alternatives. )

Biden also pointed out that Chuck Hagel and John McCain have been constant critics of the Bush administration's Iraqi policy. "There were no centers of terror in Iraq before this war, and now - if we fail - there will in fact be the importing the entirety of the jihadists from Afghanistan and other parts of the world to the center of Iraq."

Biden also jumped down Stephanopoulos' throat about putting words in his mouth. Good for you, Joe! It is way past time that Democrats follow this example and begin to call out the pundits who are trying to spin and shape their own words. As we've pointed out, we do not always agree with Biden, and we think that he has been all little bit too willing to "compromise" with the Bush Administration on too many issues, but it was good to see Biden showing the sort of backbone against the press that more Democrats should adopt. Biden demanded that the president come before the American people and say exactly how many Iraqi forces will need to be trained and how a drawdown will take place. Biden fired off a number of quotable sound bites: Give us a date, Mr. President! This administration's policy is so far a stark failure. The goal should be to remove our troops as rapidly as possible out of there. But the ultimate goal is preserving U.S. interests. And if that goal would be the significant growth of a jihad movement, then those goals are at odds with one another. [It's] the Pottery Barn Rule: This president has broken pottery and he owns it.

(We must have heard the invocation of the "Pottery Barn Rule" three or four times this weekend, sometimes for military leaders and politicians whom one would think normally aligned with Team Bush. This simple-to-understand sound bite is certain to get more play not only in the near future but next year in the lead-up to congressional midterm elections. )

The interview concluded with a little bit of back-and-forth on what Biden did with his vacation.

Joe Biden has been the Democratic Energizer bunny of the Sunday morning Pundit Circuit throughout August. We ask again: where are all of the other Democratic politicians (no, vacation is not an excuse!), and wire they not been granted visibility on television's political discussion programs? Dr. Dean - are you there ?

Stephanopoulos then welcomed his second guest, Senator John Thune, and repeated Biden's assertion that the president has to change course on Iraq. In a watered-down attempt to defend Bush, Thune had to admit that he has no idea which direction Iraq is going. He stuck with the administration talking point that "we have to move this process forward." He also insisted that the United States is "making progress" in Iraq.

(Well, if laying the foundation for another Islamic theocracy is "making progress," Thune may be right. )

Stephanopoulos practically mocked the assertion that the United States is making progress by pointing directly to Shia and Sunni opposition to the Constitution; all Thune could do was make a half-hearted subject-changing comment about reaching out to various parties in Iraq. "Reach out ... reach out."

(John, dude - take a look at who is running the State Department. Condolleeza Rice? John Bolton? Do these look like the sort of people or even interested in reaching out to anyone??)

Thune also fell back on the administration talking point about how long it took for the American Constitution and Bill of Rights to be written; even Stephanopoulos was dismissive of this point as he asked about the possibility of a "5, 10, 15-year commitment" - we only wish that Stephanopoulos had mentioned that the whole Bush team said that this entire situation would fall into place so quickly and so efficiently that it would make our heads spin. And, naturally, John Thune, sounding like the parrot that he is, played to the fear card, forcefully bringing up the issues of safety and security, claiming that the Bush Administration is making families safer in America (notice that it's always families, not citizens or individuals), and added, "We have to win the war on terror. If we don't do that is going to put our country at greater risk going forward."

(Well, no kidding, Thune! If that is the case, then why did we pull troops out of Afghanistan - where we were fighting a war on the ground against organizations that were joined at the hip with homicidal death cult terrorists? Why, so the vengeful, dry-drunk Bush boy could get his feud on with Saddam Hussein! Going after Saddam and their real war against terrorist criminals have nothing to do with each other.)

Has Rumsfeld become a liability for the president? Thune would not say yes - but he equivocated on saying no, and there was a discernible undercurrent of anger in his answer concerning the manner in which the issue of base closings had been handled. Ellsworth Air Force base in South Dakota will remain open, but only by the skin of its figurative teeth. "My hope is that the president will allow the process to work ... I think the secretary [Rumsfeld ] exercised poor judgment when it came to Ellsworth Air Force Base." There was a few minutes of wonky, dull discussion of legislation pertaining to military bases.

There wasn't much worth mentioning from the round table. At the top, Stephanopoulos recapped the failure of Sunnis to sign on to the Iraqi constitution along with Moqtada al-Sadr's opposition to it, and pessimistically forecast strong possibility that the Constitution would be rejected the October. Fareed Zakaria facetiously said that the rejection of the Constitution in October might actually be the only good news out of the situation, which got a laugh out of the round table - and us.

There was an unusual amount of giggling and laughter from the round table as they focused in on the minutia of Bush trying to undo the blunder of "De-Ba'athification. " Yeah, guys, real funny. Stephanopoulos mocked Biden for not being particularly happy about replying to Gary Hart's critique of Democrats. Cokie Roberts reflexively bashed Democrats (the girl just can't help it). To our delight, Cokie seemed none too happy about having to admit that military families seem to be split down the middle about whether or not to continue the war in Iraq. There was little else worth mentioning from the round table - other than Cokie Roberts' public relations speech in praise of Alan Greenspan. Who needs syrup of ipecac when Cokie is handy?