So who's the party of ideas now?

Dadahead is right -- the tide has turned. The Right has gone from trying to convince the American people that Iraq is not a debacle to trying to convince the American people that it is a debacle Republicans and Democrats ventured into together.

Furthermore, their president has become radioactive, and senate Republicans are trying their level best to distance themselves from him without anybody noticing the obvious -- that they're following the footsteps of the Dems. The Carpetbagger put it best: "In other words, Senate Dems — often accused of not having an agenda of their own — crafted a positive, forward-looking policy for Iraq, and leading Republicans quickly got behind it."

In a sign of increasing unease among Congressional Republicans over the war in Iraq, the Senate is to consider on Tuesday a Republican proposal that calls for Iraqi forces to take the lead next year in securing the nation and for the Bush administration to lay out its strategy for ending the war. […]

The proposal on the Iraq war, from Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, and Senator John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, would require the administration to provide extensive new quarterly reports to Congress on subjects like progress in bringing in other countries to help stabilize Iraq. The other appeals related to Iraq are nonbinding and express the position of the Senate.

The plan stops short of a competing Democratic proposal that moves toward establishing dates for a phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq. But it is built upon the Democratic approach and makes it clear that senators of both parties are increasingly eager for Iraqis to take control of their country in coming months and open the door to removing American troops.