Digby: Cornered Maverick

No, No, No. St. John doesn't get to punt on the McCain Doctrine by asking his "supporters" what they think. Nor does he get to differentiate himself from the most unpopular politician in the country at this late date by calling for "benchmarks" and pretending that it makes him a maverick. It was only two months ago that he was saying that such things would be a "recipe for disaster."

He's trying his damnedest to get out of the corner into which he's painted himself, but he can't. His entire strategy for 08 was to run against both the hippy Dems who wanted to cut-n-run and Bush who failed to follow his advice to send in more troops. He took that tack for good reasons. The conventional wisdom for years was that Bush would not escalate the war.