to find an example of Democrats' chutzpah.

It looks like the Democrats have found some spending to be concerned about. As more and more Democrats become squeamish about Afghanistan, they've decided it's time to get serious about controlling costs.

Gibbs said that the subject of a war tax on the wealthy, proposed by a handful of leading Democrats, has not come up yet in the president's extensive war council meetings. But the idea, though unlikely to pass Congress, is one way for Democrats who are coming to dislike the war in greater numbers to challenge the president to confront the cost of any escalation.

To be fair to Democrats, they also imposed tax raises to help control costs on their pet project, like a cosmetic surgery tax that will pay $5 billion out of $1.8 trillion
$5,000,000,000
__________________________

$1,800,000,000,000
It's worth pointing out that Obama's decision, which is leaning toward 34,000 or so troops, is probably bowing to pressure regarding the costs of the war. But when the Democrats start feeling twinges of guilt about treating the federal government like a limitless credit card, they try to withdraw from the rich (their debit card?)

Still, it's likely the threats are hollow political posturing. We have seen Democrats flex their purse string muscles to try to influence war policy, it was so politically unpopular that they didn't dare try it, despite how unpopular the Iraq war was at the time. At least they threaten to flex SOME muscle once in awhile.

to see the problem isn't the Democrats' "message."

In conjunction with my previous post about independents' dissatisfaction with the Democrats, I noted that political pundits have been debating whether the election results were based on local or national issues, and whether Democrats need to recalibrate their "message,"

But it doesn't take a wonk to realize the problem has nothing to do with the Democrats' message because the Democrats aren't following their own script.

to realize why independents are "bolting" from the Democrats

After New Jersey and Virginia elected Republicans for governors a few weeks ago, the Administration and Democrats tried to spin those races as being determined by local issues, not national party issues.  Although Obama did campaign for Corzine and said Corzine was "one of the best partners I have in the White House," and that they "work together" (on what exactly I could only imagine), it's more likely that local issues decided New Jersey and Virginia was more of a litmus test for national politics.

Maybe that helped Democrats rationalize the political atmosphere a few weeks ago, but now Democrat officials are starting to get alarmed about independents bolting from them.  The Politico article goes on to quote officials in several states theorizing the reasons behind it, with some citing a faltering economy, some citing spending, and some simply burying their head in the sand and refusing to see a real problem.

But it doesn't take a wonk to understand the public's underlying problems with the Democrats right now.