Think about this.

In the great welfare debate that flourished for years before we finally reformed the system, Conservatives said that if we continued to support the poor the way we had been, they would never work to become self-sufficient and independent. Liberals responded that the poor could not survive without our support and that to withdraw would turn their lives into catastrophes.

In the great Iraq debate today the liberals are saying that if we continue to give such strong and open-ended support to the Iraqis, they will never become self-sufficient and be able to govern themselves. The Conservative supporters of the President say that if we withdraw our support, the result for the Iraqis will be catastrophic.

But don’t let these contradictions bother you.

It was, after all, the late Sen. Everett Dirksen (R-IL) who liked to quote Ralph Waldo Emerson to the effect that “Consistency is the hob goblin of small minds.”