According to the record, the much-ballyhooed “anti-war” Gen. Wesley Clark has done as much bean-jumping on Iraq as the famously plastic John Kerry.

Was Clark against the war? Not really. He just wanted to wait longer and get the U.N. on board. Dean said pretty much the same thing, though in Dean’s case I guess that was said in lieu of the probably more truthful but politically inexpedient position that the war unnecessary and a bad idea altogether, unilateral or no.

At least Dean didn’t jump on the Bush bandwagon the way Clark did when Baghdad fell. “Let’s have those parades on the Mall and down Constitution Avenue,” he wrote.

So the great hope of a national debate about this war next year is fading fast. Oh, sure there’ll be a debate all right: Which man do you trust more to manage a mess?