It seems that Congressional Democrats really have decided to completely change their approach to Iraq. For now at least, the operating principle seems to be to ignore it:
As Congress opens the 2008 session, it’s hard to find Iraq anywhere on the official agenda. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has no Iraq hearings scheduled, while the House Foreign Affairs Committee is focusing on Pakistan. The Senate Armed Services Committee also has yet to schedule any Iraq-related hearings, although Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is tentatively scheduled to appear on Feb. 6… Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden (D-Del.) chaired 12 Iraq hearings in the first month of 2007, while his counterpart in the House, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), used hearings to call administration officials to account for the lack of progress in Iraq. The two Armed Services committees were engulfed by the issue as well – the House panel chaired by Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) held seven hearings in the first month of 2007.
There’s an old saying that success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. This seems to be the rare case where that isn’t true. Instead, it seems that for Congressional Democrats, success in Iraq is the redheaded stepchild.
