It's not often that I go out on a limb and give well-intentioned advice to America's minority party. I'm going to do it this time because if what Matt Drudge is reporting is true, then the Dems are not only going to shoot themselves in the proverbial foot with the American people, but also hurt military men and women everywhere, but especially in Iraq.

During upcoming confirmation hearings for Attorney General-nominee Alberto Gonzales, senior Democrats want to screen infamous videotapes showing Iraqis being abused at Abu Ghraib prison, top sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT.

The curtain is raised Thursday for the Senate Judiciary Committee's showdown with Gonzales.

The Bush White House counsel will be grilled about his role in formulating the administration's legal policies on coercive techniques in interrogations -- techniques some Democrats believe led to outright torture!

If Democrats do this, it is proof that they are blinded by partisan hatred. They will give al Jazeera and terrorist groups new images for their vulgar recruiting videos -- and for what? To score some cheap political points against the President.

There's nothing good that can come out of such a maneuver, and if they do it, the outrage against Democrats will grow. Do you want to be seen as America-haters? That's how it will look. You'll try to tar Gonzales and the Bush administration with the actions of a few out-of-control soldiers, and all the American people will see is images of people in uniform doing unpleasant things continually replayed.

Top Hill insiders explain Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) has not ruled out exploring the abuse at Abu Ghraib with Gonzales in open session. But a well-placed Kennedy source said the Attorney General's confirmation hearings will not be turned into a showdown with the military.

You can say it won't be a showdown with the military, but once you play the tapes in public and give them to the press, you lose control. It will drag the military into it, and you know it.

The point Democrats say they are trying to prove is that this abuse (I haven't seen anything that I would call torture) was a result of policy developed and implemented at the very top. Fine. These tapes can't prove that one way or another.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the videos should be made public and that they proved to him that there was an organized policy of abusing prisoners to get information -- approved by the White House.

Sen. Levin, a fertile mind grows more hair. Using your "logic" I could say that this video demonstrates a Democratic Party policy of physical assault on Republicans. That, of course, is a silly contention. Your "proof" would get laughed out of a kangaroo court.

You want to prove it? Find a document that lays down the policy. Despite four years of being headed by Republicans, the State Department is still a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party, surely someone over there has a copy of this policy you allege was dictated from President Bush down the chain of command to Lyndie England. Give Ron Suskind a call -- all those documents Paul O'Neill took with him when he left -- surely that memo is in there somewhere.

The alternative is you could act like an adults and focus on the issues rather than some media-driven show-and-tell.

If Democrats honestly believe that they'll hurt the president and help their own fortunes by making this move -- they still don't get it. They still don't get what's happening in all of those red counties.

If you want to save the Democratic Party, then you'll forget about the video.