1. Back in the old days of American politics — the late 1940s — Arthur Vandenberg, a respected Republican senator from Michigan, coined the phrase that partisan politics should end at the water's edge.

What he had to say is instructive as the nastiness of the current partisan debate over the war in Iraq threatens to divide the country and embolden the enemy.

Here are Vandenberg’s words:

“To me, ‘bipartisan foreign policy’ means a mutual effort, under our indispensable, two-party system, to unite our official voice at the water’s edge so that America speaks with one voice to those who would divide and conquer us and the free world.”

Vandenberg went on to say that there should be full, open and honest debate of foreign policy within the country. But the goal of such debate, he said, was not to score political points, but to reach a position of unity that could be presented to the world.

Few would argue with that. However, over the past few weeks, it would appear that debate over the course of the war in Iraq has thrown the Vandenberg adage out the window.

Democrats, buoyed by public opinion polls that show American support for the war in Iraq dwindling, have launched a heavy assault against President Bush and his arguments used to persuade members of Congress to authorize the war and topple the regime of Saddam Hussein. Some Democratic opponents have stopped just short of accusing Bush of treason.

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