Democrats had better be prepared to confront this business aggressively. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that they won't be. Months and months ago when the groundwork for all this was being laid by conservative pundits and so forth I made it a habit to ask every Democratic politician I came across whether or not they were prepared for Iran to be an issue in the '06 midterms. Absolutely none of them seemed to be. People were either confident it wouldn't come to that, confident they could gin up a counter-pan if it did come to that, or else just expressed outrage at the idea that the GOP might politicize national security. But of course the GOP will politicize national security. What's more, they should politicize national security -- it's an important and legitimate issue in political debates. Democrats can't just plead for the refs to call a foul, they need to try to engage in this debate and win it.
In discussing Iran, Mark Warner said it was "the real deal." Fortunately for him this far out even wannabe '08 contenders don't really have to decide what this precisely means or what we should be doing about it. However, this type of rhetoric, regardless of the merits, simply provides the crazies who happen to be running our country right a license to do pretty much whatever they want. Whatever problems we face in the world it's important to understand that the choices are "do basically nothing" or "let George Bush do something" and it's doubly important to be able to recognize that "do basically nothing" is often going to be the preferable option. Republicans apparently think Iran has already annexed Kuwait, which I must have missed, but that shows how "serious" they are.
I don't know if Iran's going to take center stage as we head into November - though CNN is there to oblige them if they so desire - but, yes, both on the policy and the politics the Dems had better be ready.