I know!  I know!  Instead of debating whether or not the argument is correct, let’s just criticize the way the person made the argument!

That’ll distract ‘em.  From Salon:

I’m on record — in multiple places — expressing my doubts about the headline on the Petraeus ad. That was last week; I’ve moved on. With everything else facing the country, I can’t believe our top deliberative body took time out to denounce MoveOn. And I can’t believe 22 Democrats joined Republican opportunists. Our wildly unpopular president teed the whole thing up like the Senate was a Little League team on the White House lawn in his stumbling, bumbling press conference this morning:

“I thought that the ad was disgusting. I felt like the ad was an attack, not only on Gen. Petraeus but on the U.S. military. And I was disappointed that not more leaders in the Democrat Party spoke out strongly against that kind of ad. That leads me to come to this conclusion: that most Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like MoveOn.org — are more afraid of irritating them than they are of irritating the United States military.”

Oh right, let’s bring that one out again: Democrats don’t support the military! Sometimes, especially when I debate Pat Buchanan, I think it’s a generational problem, that it’s older Democrats who remember the Vietnam era and fear the Republican-crafted story line that Democrats “lost” that war by opposing it. I find myself thinking: Younger Democrats ought to have an easier time making the case that it’s the Democrats who care about the troops, who want them to have adequate body armor and ammunition and time home with their families, and who want to bring them home from an unwinnable war in Iraq. That old Republican garbage can’t work forever. (Remember, too, that more Americans polled wanted to bring the troops home after Gen. David Petraeus’ testimony — and the MoveOn kerfuffle — than before.)