Washington Times editorial page editor Tony Blankley compared Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean and others advocating the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq to slaveholders in the pre-Civil War American South.

From Blankley's December 14 Washington Times column, titled "Bad Faith":

What are rational people to make of Howard Dean's statement that “the idea that we're going to win the war is an idea that, unfortunately, is just plain wrong.” In what sense does he “want” us not to fail in Iraq? Now, this is where the definition of want comes in. It is technically true that since DNC Chairman Dean says “unfortunately,” he can make the argument that he wants victory, he wants the war objectives -- establishing democracy in Iraq and protecting our homeland by so doing. Dr. Dean can make that claim, at the verbally technical level, even as he openly admits that he supports substantive policies (immediate withdrawal of our troops) that will assure the non-attainment of those goals.

There were many slaveholders in America before the Civil War who “wanted” what was best for their African American slaves -- it was just that they thought slavery was their natural condition and that slavery was best for them. We fought and won a Civil War to defeat that pernicious idea.

While such slaveholders may have been subjectively honest when they said they wanted what was best for their slaves, the rest of the world was entitled to assert that objectively, the slaveholder did not support policies that were best for the slave (what was objectively best for the slave -- any slave -- is freedom) It may be true that Howard Dean subjectively wants to protect our homeland and see Democracy reign in Iraq. But others are entitled to assert that the policy he advocates -- loosing [sic] the war immediately -- objectively is not in the best interest of Iraqi democracy and the protection of our homeland.

Blankley -- who also co-hosts Left, Right & Center on radio station KCRW, a community service of Santa Monica College in California, and appears regularly on PBS' The McLaughlin Group -- has previously described post-Watergate Democrats as “fish-eyed sacks of loathsome bile and infamy,” and called progressive financier George Soros “a Jew who figured out a way to survive the Holocaust.”