So much for the clarity from yesterday.  From today’s WaPo:

But in an interview yesterday, McNerney made clear his views have shifted since returning from Iraq. He said Democrats should be willing to negotiate with the generals in Iraq over just how much more time they might need. And, he said, Democrats should move beyond their confrontational approach, away from tough-minded, partisan withdrawal resolutions, to be more conciliatory with Republicans who might also be looking for a way out of the war.

“We should sit down with Republicans, see what would be acceptable to them to end the war and present it to the president, start negotiating from the beginning,” he said, adding, “I don’t know what the [Democratic] leadership is thinking. Sometimes they’ve done things that are beyond me.”

Here’s a message to Democrats:  stay far away from the WH talking points on Iraq — this has been the deadliest summer yet and using their messaging language only allows them to obscure that point, which simply serves to continue their legacy of failure on your dime.  Although, to be fair to McNerney and other Democrats quoted in the WaPo piece, Anne Kornblut is involved in this particular article — and, as Somerby points out, her stenography has been…erm…less than accurate in the past.

So, we are certainly following up on this…

PS — Having spent the last few minutes of my life watching George Bush say absolutely nothing of substance to a bunch of veterans whose sacrifice deserves far better than the Karen Hughes propaganda touch they got this morning.  Josh has a prebuttal that is worth a read, but this point needs restatement:  justifying our continued failures in policy as a response to taunts from Osama Bin Laden is a pathetically junior high level of analysis, and it serves no purpose to pretend that this is “strategic thinking” on any level but that of George Bush’s ego.  This from Joe Klein back in July is also worth a read this morning in light of this speech:  “We have had more than four years of a President who seems to have such a low opinion of the public that he can’t bear to tell it the truth about a war gone sour.”  This President and his supporters know that their support is slipping, not just among Democrats, but among all Americans.