What are they afraid of?

So called centrist Democrats seem hellbent on continuing - even exacerbating - the foreign policy travesties of the Bush administration while simultaneously letting the Bushies off the hook for their numerous fuck-ups. Let the parsing begin!:

These centrist Democrats argued that voters are more receptive to the Democrats because of Bush's mistakes in Iraq. But they warned against calls to launch investigations into past administration decisions if Democrats gain control of the House or Senate in the November elections. Instead, they said, Democrats should concentrate on charting alternative policies for fighting terrorism and succeeding in Iraq.

Two things strike me here. The first is this reticence on the part of the centrists to investigate the Bush administrations massive betrayal of the public trust. Personally, I think an honest investigation into how these crooks led us into the bloodbath in Iraq is necessary to even begin to restore the citizenry's faith in its governing institutions, but this DLC crew believes it to be too "backward looking," and I imagine there's going to be spin that states that, like the Watergate scandal, this sort of investigation would be too demoralizing to the nation.

It's interesting, however, to take a look at the crew pushing the ix-nay on the investigations - Bayh, Biden and Hillary Clinton are the names mentioned in the WaPo, all of them with professed presidential ambitions. Taking this into account, I see less a concern for the nation's welfare than an unhealthy deference to executive power, with the motivation of preserving these prerogatives for their own potential administrations. In other words, the reassertion of legislative oversight might somehow hamstring their own executive desires down the road.

Second, the DLC remains mired in the thought that "success" in Iraq can be achieved with U.S. troops remaining in country. The evidence to date shows that that is simply wishful thinking. Leaving U.S. troops in Iraq (or increasing their numbers, as some would hope to do) is like picking at the proverbial scab, not allowing the wound to heal. I'm not going to pretend that the withdrawal of U.S. troops is going to solve all of the problems, but it's a necessary start.

PPI President Will Marshall said that Democrats should embrace internationalism in the tradition of Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy. That includes championing freedom and democracy. "We can't abandon [support for] democracy simply because the Bush administration has embraced it or misappropriated it," he said.

Or, we could embrace an internationalism that doesn't place U.S. energy needs and geopolitical concerns at the center of our policy, actually undermining freedom and democracy in places like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. How novel.

Centrist Democrats: offering us more of the same abroad, but with bread and circuses to keep us happy at home.

"Many of us are disturbed by the calls for investigations or even impeachment as the defining vision for our party for what we would do if we get back into office," he said.

And is anyone else sick of supposed Democrats repeating GOP talking points? Jeebus.