This was one of those seminal days in Washington, where a hard-core political attack by an ideologically-aligned group finally backfires under the weight of time and scrutiny. Washington lives for this.
President Bush, sensing the moment of perfect timing, gleefully and in a clearly pre-scripted manner, hammered MoveOn.org's ill-considered (after the fact) Petraeus/Betray Us NYT print ad at the same time Senate Dems were forced to vote on a "sense of the senate resolution" condemning MoveOn.org.
The verdict is in: Bush scored a direct hit today and the Senate Dems ran for the tall grass en masse.
Meanwhile, Eli Pariser, finally smoked out and required to go on camera to defend his deteriorating situation, was busy on the cable talk shows this afternoon and this evening slip-sliding through interviews, clearly on the defensive.
Rudy milked this first and set the stage for Bush to pile on -- a rare example this year of something going right for us as a Party.
As dysfuntional we as Republicans are at the moment, thank heavens for the incompetence of MoveOn.org, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.
