Still 20 Months Left To Get Right With The American People

(Note: Original posting dropped the hotlinks. I apologize)

First it was longtime Bush/Cheney pal Vic Gold bailing out.

Then it was Matthew Dowd, the former Bush '04 campaign strategist, breaking with the administration.

Now noted Clinton-hater Bob Barr says he's sorry.

Which brings us to Tommy Thompson, who has yet to tell us whether he ever spoke truth to power during his four years as Bush's Secretary of Health and Human Services.

It's not enough to obliquely criticize Bush's war with a goofy proposal to leave US forces in Iraq if the Iraqis vote to keep them there.

Talk about handing over control of American forces, foreign policy and lives to non-Americans - - isn't that what the far right always caterwauls about when they attack the UN and American troops serving in peace-keeping missions?

We don't have the kind of national referendum that Tommy thinks should determine whether US forces stay in Iraq, but we do have elections, and the November, 2006 balloting, along with repetitive polls and recent votes in Congress, all suggest that a majority of Americans - - regardless of what Iraqis may want - - say it's time for US forces to leave Iraq.

There are a zillion reasons that Tommy's campaign ecstasy won't win him the nomination, and amounts to little more than an ego trip and possible, vanity audition for veep, but he could earn himself some real cred with the American people if he flat out broke with Bush over the war.