I was wondering when The New Republic would finally weigh in. I mean really weigh in, not just snipe and carp and piss and moan. Finally, they did, and in the splendid form of a true Loyal Opposition:

Today's polls may show the Democrats with an advantage on the domestic issues the public supposedly cares about most, but ultimately that advantage will not matter if the party is timid and irresponsible on questions of war and peace. Do today's Democrats really need to be reminded of the political history of the last two decades of the cold war?

...Democratic leaders are hiding behind the alliance's skirts, using Europe's opposition to avoid explaining how they see this dangerous world. Multilateralism, in the hands of today's Democrats, is not a foreign policy vision; it is an absence of foreign policy vision, an abdication of the party's obligation to think for itself.

The rest is all worth reading. Click here to so read.

It's hard to disagree with them. Even if you don't agree on some particulars, on the whole their indictment strikes home. This is all the more striking coming from The New Republic, the mainstream voice of moderate, serious-minded leftism.

In a time of war, we need either unity or we need serious-minded, straightforward debate. It's time those who lead our oldest and largest political party to find their collective manhoods and take a position. Voters will respect them more for saying "nay" than they will for efforts to weasel out of having a position.