For nearly two weeks the recriminations within the Democratic Party have been reverberating over their leadership of Congress folding on a defined timeline for withdrawal from Iraq. Sunday night's thrust at Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama by former vice-presidential candidate John Edwards, is just the latest example. Yet, deep down, there is a more serious issue that voters should be concerned with, when it comes to listening to the candidates for president.

Whether you believe the war in Iraq is being conducted properly or not, there seemed to be some absolutes about it until Congress went on vacation just before Memorial Day. The first is that Democrats, who ran on a platform of changing the national policy regarding Iraq last fall, were focused on a timetable for withdrawal - something that they spoke about regularly. The second was that President George W. Bush was not going to change his surge policy. In the end, as is all too common, congressional Democrats folded.

Instead of taking on the president, even after his threats of a veto, Democrats, worried that he would attack them as being “defeatist” (instead the GOP has been able to label Democrats as not having backbone), backed down.

The end result is critics again charge that they are a party that is not willing to take a stand when it comes to principle. By the way, that is not coming from Republicans - it's coming from their own supporters - the base that voted them in and, more importantly, gave them money to run their successful takeover of Congress last November.

The most vicious attacks don't seem to be coming from the GOP (who are taking a page out of the playbook that says that when your opponents are self destructing, stand out of the way and just let them) - they are coming from the likes of anti-war protesters like Cindy Sheehan and Hollywood celebrities and staunch party backers like Ben Affleck.

Edward's barbs against Clinton Sunday night may be especially stinging because of an extensive essay that morning in the New York Times Magazine, which analyzed her political calculations of going from giving Bush authorization for force in 2002 to not very strong advocacy of a timetable vote two weeks ago.

What should trouble supporters of a timetable for withdrawal, and more importantly, those who expect national Democrats to adhere to their mainstay pledges, is whether they really mean what they say. As you hear the candidates for the White House talk about things today, it is troubling to believe that, worried about keeping the White House in 2012, should they win next November, they might break those very pledges that sound so like those made by congressional candidates last fall.

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com