This is one of those enjoyable commentaries where the leftwing media is panicking because the national democrats are no where to be seen, and the left is looking bad in comparison to a supposedly wounded Bush. It happens every summer.

This should be the Democrats’ moment: The Bush administration is caught in an increasingly unpopular war; its plan to revamp Social Security is fading into oblivion; its deputy chief of staff is facing a grand jury probe. Though the Republicans control both houses of Congress as well as the White House, they seem to be suffering from political and intellectual exhaustion. They are better at slash-and-burn campaigning than governing.

So where are the Democrats amid this GOP disarray? Frankly, they are nowhere. They are failing utterly in the role of an opposition party, which is to provide a coherent alternative account of how the nation might solve its problems. Rather than lead a responsible examination of America’s strategy for Iraq, they have handed off the debate to a distraught mother who is grieving for her lost son.

I mentioned before that sooner or later national democrats would start distancing themselves from Sheehan. It appears it may be starting already.

Because they lack coherent plans for how to govern the country, the Democrats have become captive of the most shrill voices in the party, who seem motivated these days mainly by visceral dislike of George W. Bush. Sorry, folks, but loathing is not a strategy — especially when much of the country finds the object of your loathing a likable guy.

I am not even worried Ignatius is making sense – he is preaching to the senseless.