John Edwards in Sunday's Wash Post: I was wrong to vote for the Iraq war

This is a very big deal.

Edwards is saying what far too few Democrats are willing to say. They got tricked into voting for the war in Iraq, and now they regret it. Edwards goes one step farther, taking personal responsibility in any case for his vote. He and Kerry should have done this last year, but it's still good he's doing it now, and it sounds very much to me like this is a man running for president in 2008.

I say this is a big deal because top Democrats are finally willing to say publicly that they screwed up, they should have never voted for this fiasco, while at the same acknowledging that Bush hardly played an insignificant role in tricking the Congress and the American people into supporting this war.

One point Edwards doesn't make very clearly, but I would, is that Congress gave the president the authorization to go to war. They did not give him the authorization to do so incompetently. There's a big difference. You give your doctor permission to conduct a tonsilectomy. You do not, however, give him permission to get drunk and cut off your leg by mistake.

Bush is guilty of military malpractice. No one gave him permission to do a sloppy job.