Rangel and the vast majority of other congressional Democrats hoping, perhaps even praying, that the U.S. loses this war.

From Investors Business Daily: Apocalypse ASAP!

Democratic leaders are making it increasingly clear they'll let nothing prevent the U.S. from losing the war against al-Qaida and other terrorists in Iraq — not even victory.

For them, defeat in Iraq cannot come too soon. They are that convinced a failed war blamed on President Bush would be a political gold mine in 2008.

As if to prevent anyone in America from starting to think things might be going better in Iraq, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel declared in a visit to the New York Daily News editorial board last week that "the president knows it's over."

Calling the commander in chief "the joke of America," Rangel of New York added: "The president is in the 15th round. He's lost every round."

When one of Congress' most powerful committee chairmen makes such remarks, it may get under the skin of a few politicians on the other side of the aisle; but the chief effect Rangel's wisecracks have comes when they get translated into Arabic and Farsi, and al-Qaida's operatives and sympathizers hear them.