Yes, as Glenn and Digby point out, the Democrats not only allowed the irrational and incessantly repeated Republican talking point that defunding the war and supporting the troops were mutually exclusive to take root, they actively cultivated and propagated it. Leading, after six months or so, to the fiasco of the Iraq supplemental.

But the situation is far worse than Democrats adopting single Republican talking points, though that's bad enough. It's that the entire political establishment has bought into a climate of fear that only benefits Bush. Krugman points out:

The truth is that the nightmare of the Bush years won’t really be over until politicians are convinced that voters will punish, not reward, Bush-style fear-mongering. And that hasn’t happened yet.

Here’s the way it ought to be: When Rudy Giuliani says that Iran, which had nothing to do with 9/11, is part of a “movement” that “has already displayed more aggressive tendencies by coming here and killing us,” he should be treated as a lunatic.

When Mitt Romney says that a coalition of “Shia and Sunni and Hezbollah and Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda” wants to “bring down the West,” he should be ridiculed for his ignorance.

And when John McCain says that Osama, who isn’t in Iraq, will “follow us home” if we leave, he should be laughed at.

But they aren’t, at least not yet. And until belligerent, uninformed posturing starts being treated with the contempt it deserves, men who know nothing of the cost of war will keep sending other people’s children to graves at Arlington.

Some Democratic leadership on this would help. You would think.

Because I've got this quotation running through me mind. I think a Democrat said it.

"The thing...." "The thing we have...." "Fear is the thing we have..."

"Fear is the thing, it's the only thing..."

Dammit, I know I'll get it!