There's been an awful lot of Democratic wailing and gnashing of teeth of late regarding President Bush's week of the long knives over at Langley, and I have to say that it seems like a massive waste of time and energy to me. Frankly, the current restructuring will either make the nation safer or it won't, and there isn't much that we as Democrats can say or do at this point to affect things one way or the other.

That said, there is a message that we Donkeys should be forcefully communicating to the press and the public in this period: namely, that Colin Powell's famous Pottery Barn Rule is now in effect. President Bush and his appointees have intentionally broken the CIA in order to "fix" it, and that makes them 100% responsible for the results. So if things go well for the next four years, they get the credit: hat's off, Rudy (or Bill or Jeb) '08, and all the rest. But if things go south -- if US policy abroad suffers a serious setback due to faulty intel, or if terror once again visits America's shores -- the President of the United States and his party are wholly responsible*.

In this new, quasi-parliamentary era (about which Matt Yglesias and others have written so well), we Democrats have an obligation to do what opposition parties do: Pray for success, and prepare for failure. And one of the ways you do that is by ruthlessly holding the party in power accountable for what happens on its watch.

Sad to say, perhaps, but that appears to be the Democratic party's primary function in the American democracy today. So let's get to it.

*Not to blame, of course -- terrorists are to blame for terror -- but, yes, completely responsible.