Nice Analysis: Dan Henninger has a good analogy for the Democrats, in light of the NAACP flap:

The Democratic Party now resembles a vast hospital nursery, with each colicky baby lying in a separate crib screaming for attention--right now, for me. And if a Joe Lieberman or Dick Gephardt doesn't run right over and pour political formula down their throats, they'll keep right on screaming. And so yesterday, Messrs. Lieberman, Gephardt and Kucinich all scampered to Miami, stood before the NAACP convention and apologized. Mr. Lieberman: "I was wrong, I regret it, and I apologize." Then Sen. Lieberman suggested that Kweise Mfume belonged on the Supreme Court.

Just one cranky baby, this time the NAACP (next time, who knows), and Lieberman takes a huge hit for skipping the initial confab and then bending over backward to make up for it.

The political issue is obvious. (Is there anything that actually unites the factions of the Democratic party, asks Henninger. His answer: "contempt for the person of George W. Bush.") The consequences are less obvious. The Democrats have a paradigm already established, by Bill Clinton. (Clinton's strategy was to run by kissing all the rings and then do what he needed to survive. His famous "Sister Souljah moment" was a political no-brainer: better her than Sharpton.) Luckily, up until now, there hasn't been all that much conflict among the Democrats' consituency groups (aside from the less-predictably liberal union voters -- although the union money has still gone to the Dems). The real question is, what will the war do to that? Even Ed Koch said recently that he'll be voting for Bush in '04, despite their domestic policy disagreements. I think a lot of Dems are starting to feel this way, and yesterday's hawkish speech by Tony Blair, an authentic European liberal, will add to that phenomenon, if only marginally. Bush can draw on a lot of ambivalent liberals and hawkish moderates if the Dems keep up their game of keep away with Iraq policy.