Consensus

MSNBC is talking about the ISG report with a couple of the members from the Group there to explain the process, former Senator Chuck Robb of Virginia and former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. One of the things they keep touting is the bi-partisan process. In particular, how an even number of Democrats and Republicans got together and came up with over 70 unanimous recommendations for dealing with the war in Iraq.

There is this idea that Democrats and Republicans getting together to talk about problems is a remarkable event and there's this wide-eyed disbelief and awe any time it happens. It is the unfortunate effect, I believe, of the last 12 years of Republican congressional rule (with a special emphasis on the last half of that) where Democrats were routinely shut out of bill negotiations and conferences.

Having said that, I fear this media awe over the presence of a bi-partisan conversation will skew any analysis of what that conversation has produced. It will be assumed to be full of Great Ideas. And opposing these Great Ideas, or even criticizing them, will only mean to the mainstream media that one is Unreasonable and Not Serious, which would in turn mean that one should be ignored.

Sandra Day O'Connor is saying that she hopes the media plays an impartial or supportive role in selling the ISG report to the country so that Serious Politicians can build a consensus. The problem is there already is a consensus. Most Americans want to withdraw. It's time to come home, it's not getting better, it's not going to get better, we're not helping, and it costs too much to stay, especially in the current open-ended "until the job is done" way.

So the Iraqi Study Group hopes the media helps them make their case. They hope the American people are listening.

Meanwhile, the American people settled this issue about a month ago and now they're waiting for the signs that anyone's heard.