Gephardt exhibits the kind of political courage for which the Democrats are so well known

Last week, here in Seattle, Dick Gephardt admitted that his concessions to Bush in the run-up to war were a mistake, and that he was wrong. To which my first reaction might be: Well done, Dick. As they say, it takes a brave man to admit that.

Trouble is, as Kos points out,

...since Gephardt is literally history, it's not as if he wins any awards for courage for finally admitting his error. Witness Al Gore liberated from elected office, or all those retired Republicans bashing Bush and the modern Republican Party. Elected office will muzzle the best intentioned politician, retirement liberates them.

Speaking of Gore, when I see that Gephardt made this admission in Seattle, I'm reminded of what my reaction was when Gore made one of his early "firebrand" speeches in San Francisco. Way to go out on that political limb, Dick.

When Democrats have (I think this is going to be a theme today) the brains or the balls to tell audiences in Ohio that supporting the war was a mistake, that's when we'll be getting somewhere.