As the United States, along with a coalition of the willing, prepares to eject the brutal dictator Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq it would seem that two Democratic leaders in Washington, Tom Daschle and Diane Feinstein, are "re-evaluating" their position supporting President Bush in this endeavor. Of course this shouldn't be surprising to anyone and everyone should now prepare for the lemmings of the Democratic Party and a great faction of the liberal world to follow suit.

All one has to remember is that the 2004 Presidential Election is upon us and the Democrats need something to rally around. They have no stance on the war on terror, they have to be behind it or the conservative base will expose them as anti-American. They have no stance on the economy. Although they have tried to manufacture an issue with how the president has handled it even they realize the government is not in control of the economy in the larger sense. So, how do they position themselves to not look inept as they take an opposing viewpoint against one of the most popular presidents in modern times? They play the war card.

Just a little over a month ago they both voted yes authorizing the president to use military force if need be. Just a month ago they saw Saddam Hussein as an amazing threat to the United States, to the nations of the Middle East and to the world. But suddenly, and incredibly so, Saddam Hussein isn't that much of a threat anymore. In a month Hussein has transformed himself from mass murderer of hundreds of thousands of his own people, invader of his neighbors and a global threat to someone we should give a reprieve to. At least this is what these two pillars of morality and justice would have you believe and they really do need you to believe it. Their positions as leaders within their party depend on it.

The reality of the matter is that within the last month we have witnessed the Iraqi tyrant informing his scientific community that if any one of them cooperates with the U.N. weapons inspectors the penalty would be execution. Certainly that doesn’t sound like a leader who is openly cooperating with inspectors from the world community. The inspectors have uncovered scores of missiles used for the delivery of chemical and biological weapons that were in mint condition. These missiles were found with a mandate in existence, put into place at the end of Operation Desert Storm, which made it very clear that the Iraqi government was not to have any such weapons at all. They agreed to the terms directed to them by a conquering force that they were to dismantle and destroy what weapons of mass destruction they had and were under no circumstances to attempt to acquire weapons of a similar or like nature in the future. Yet, the inspectors found weapons that could be used on neighboring countries and/or on the people of his own nation. We are witnessing almost on a daily basis the Iraqi air defenses firing on coalition planes patrolling the no-fly zones established so that Hussein couldn’t continue the genocide that he began directly after Desert Storm. We witness all this and more and now we hear that Tom Daschle and Diane Feinstein, to name but two, have decided that perhaps removing this madman by force isn’t the answer to situation. All this while a proven butcher sits unscathed in one of his hundreds of palaces contemplating his never move on his quest to reign supreme in the Middle East. I shudder to think about what that could be.

The fact is simply this; the grandstanding that we are witnessing from Mr. Daschle and Ms. Feinstein is all politically motivated. They are looking into the future two years and can envision a bitter fight for the White House in 2004. They see a golden opportunity to divide the people of the United States along political party lines once again in an attempt to benefit from the chaos it would most certainly cause instead of doing what they know in their hearts is the correct thing to do for the world, the Middle East and the country and what they publicly said was the correct thing to do a little over a month ago. It is obvious to even the untrained eye that Hussein hasn’t changed dramatically in his research, he hasn’t dismantled his arsenal and it is even more obvious that he is not operating in good faith with the U.N. weapons inspectors or even trying to comply with the United Nations Security Council resolution.

One thing is becoming more obvious as this controversy develops, Daschle, Feinstein, Terry McAuliffe and the Democratic Party strategists who came up with this idea have a characteristic in common with Saddam Hussein: manipulating the truth. God help us all.

Frank Salvato is a political media consultant and the managing editor for The New Media Journal.us. He is a contributing writer for The Washington Dispatch, GOPUSA, OpinionEditorials, Men’s News Daily, Canada Free Press & AmericanDaily. His pieces are regularly featured in Townhall.com. He has appeared as a guest on The O’Reilly Factor, The Kevin Matthews Radio Show (Chicago) and The Brad Messer Radio Show (San Antonio). His pieces have been recognized by the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention and are occasionally featured in The Washington Times and The London Morning Paper as well as other national and international publications.