Haas, who served as director of communications for Vice President Al Gore and then for the Clinton Office of Management and Budget, is one of those Democrats mugged by reality on 9/11. Now a visiting senior fellow at Georgetown University's Government Affairs Institute, Haas says Americans are in denial about the present danger and that Congress is complicit in that denial.

Simply put, the present danger is a worldwide threat from radical Islamist terrorism that has a strong state sponsorship component, an overt and covert military component, and an ``insidious peaceful component" that is now present in the United States.

That is to say, peacefully and without much notice, Islamists are trying to use our laws of tolerance against us to carve out exceptions for themselves. The radical Islamist faction that has infiltrated and intimidated Europe has found a home in our polite denial.

The question is: Do we wait until, say, a documentary filmmaker critical of Islam is stabbed to death in the street -- as happened to Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh?

Or do we risk hurt feelings and start talking honestly now?

Haas and other committee members are betting on the ``now.'' Toward that end -- and behind closed doors -- Bernard Lewis, Princeton University historian of Islam and the Middle East, recently addressed a few dozen senators, House members and staff.

The hope is that as congressional leaders begin to feel less isolated, they'll become more comfortable being honest on-camera. Critical to those discussions is recognition that leaving Iraq is not an option.

``Whatever you thought before the war, it is now linked to the present danger,'' says Haas. ``We simply cannot walk away. We have to keep our eye on the ball.''

And, preferably, keep the ball out of our enemies' court.