Excuse me -- why am I reading this in The Washington Post? Why the hell is this out there for public consumption?

Social Security Stance Risky, Democrats Told

Bush Could Outflank Their Rigid Opposition

...at a time when many Democrats are congratulating one another, others are beginning to worry that their strategy of rigid opposition has not begun to pay any political dividends and that Bush could yet outflank them before this fight is over.

The party's situation was posed most provocatively by two veteran Democratic strategists, Stan Greenberg and James Carville. In a memo issued last week, the two wrote: "We ask progressives to consider, why have the Republicans not crashed and burned?"

"Why has the public not taken out their anger on the congressional Republicans and the president?" they added. "We think the answer lies with voters' deeper feelings about the Democrats who appear to lack direction, conviction, values, advocacy or a larger public purpose." ...

We all know what the Democratic Party is: a collection of spineless, gutless, self-doubting, self-hating, mewling, pathetic losers. But then there's tart-tongued, tough-talking, till-the-last-dog-dies James Carville, Mr. "We're Right, They're Wrong."

Or at least that's his reputation. But if you really believe "We're right, they're wrong," you don't say, "Gosh, it's possible that we really might be wrong" in a memo that's distributed in such a way that it ends up in The Washington Post, fer crissakes.

Yes, in recent weeks there have been some public expressions of doubt on Social Security by Republicans. That's because they're losing. It's a sign that they're losing. Except for the occasional moderate playing the "maverick" card, Republicans don't hang their dirty laundry in public -- their doubts make the papers only on the rare occasions when they feel that putting daylight between themselves and the leadership is necessary for their political survival.

Democrats, alas, hang their dirty laundry in public all the time -- in fact, as in this case, Democrats often seem to deliberately dirty their laundry, then cast about for a public place to hang it.

Self-sabotaging idiots.