But what is Richardson's proposed political solution? Simple. We should "use the leverage of our withdrawal responsibly over a 12-month period but push the United States diplomacy" toward a power sharing compromise among "the three groups in Iraq."

"Leverage of our withdrawal"? I'm sure our threats to withdraw will scare al-Qaeda and insurgent groups into scampering to the peace table.

But why pick on Richardson? He's just one of an overwhelming majority of Democrats taking this position. Antiwar liberal darling Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos website recently expressed similar denial of the surge's success. He said on Bill Maher's show that while the numbers may look better now in Iraq, it will only be a matter of time before things go to hell again. These people will go to any lengths to avoid admitting a Bush policy is working, though their protests are much less credible than a high school debater's.

That said, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was doubtlessly a better debater than Bill Richardson. Pelosi gleefully rushed to the podium last week to lament that no matter what the currently monthly casual statistics show, 2007 is the deadliest year in Iraq yet for American troops. You must admit that Pelosi exhibits impressive resourcefulness in spinning numbers to deny the very encouraging trends across the board in Iraq and to justify her inalterable predisposition against the war.

Democrats are stuck in a time warp and are irreversibly wedded to defeat in Iraq -- there's simply no more tactful way of saying it.

Former Democrat Sen. Joe Lieberman agrees. He said that since retaking Congress in November 2006, "the top foreign policy priority of the Democratic Party … has been to pull our troops out of Iraq, to abandon the democratically elected government there and to hand a defeat to President Bush. … Democrats have remained emotionally invested in a narrative of defeat and retreat in Iraq, reluctant to acknowledge the progress we are now achieving."

The Democrats unifying motto should be, to paraphrase the late John Lennon, "All we are saying, is give defeat a chance."