Once I have my opinion, I'll tell you what the facts are

Jonathan Adler catches former Democratic Presidential hopeful Geo. McGovern trying to chang history:

George McGovern joins the ranks of those calling for the impeachment of President Bush.

As we enter the eighth year of the Bush-Cheney administration, I have belatedly and painfully concluded that the only honorable course for me is to urge the impeachment of the president and the vice president.

After the 1972 presidential election, I stood clear of calls to impeach President Richard M. Nixon for his misconduct during the campaign. I thought that my joining the impeachment effort would be seen as an expression of personal vengeance toward the president who had defeated me.

Today I have made a different choice.

Setting aside the arguments for and against impeaching President Bush, McGovern is seriously misrepresenting his position on the Nixon impeachment proceedings. According to these news stories, for example, McGovern called for impeaching President Nixon in a speech in Richmond, VA in October 1974 1973 in order "to make America safe for Democracy." A Westlaw search also identifies abstracts to New York Times stories suggesting McGovern urged Nixon's impeachment on other occasions as well. For instance, the abstract to a NYT story from January 21, 1974 reports that McGovern believed there were "ample grounds" for impeaching President Nixon and that he was urging the Democratic Party to take this position.

Much of today's follows this pattern also. Before the Afghan war began in earnest, Democrats declared that Afghanistan was a "quagmire." After our quick victory, the same declared that they "knew all along it would be a cakewalk." Likewise, the Iraq surge, before it began, was declared a mistake. Now that the evidence of its success has become hard to deny, the spin is mixed between still calling it a failure while taking credit for its success while declaring that they knew it was going to be a success all along ("all you have to do is put enough American soldiers in one place and...."). Listening to Democrats express these arguments, it appears that their purpose is primarily self-deception among their like-minded listeners.