They know that Petraeus will come back in September with evidence of military successes in Iraq, so they’re preemptively jumping on the bandwagon.

Democratic leaders in Congress had planned to use August recess to raise the heat on Republicans to break with President Bush on the Iraq war. Instead, Democrats have been forced to recalibrate their own message in the face of recent positive signs on the security front, increasingly focusing their criticisms on what those military gains have not achieved: reconciliation among Iraq’s diverse political factions…

The leading Democratic candidates for the White House have fallen into line with the campaign to praise military progress while excoriating Iraqi leaders for their unwillingness to reach political accommodations that could end the sectarian warfare.

“We’ve begun to change tactics in Iraq, and in some areas, particularly in Anbar province, it’s working,” Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Monday.

“My assessment is that if we put an additional 30,000 of our troops into Baghdad, that’s going to quell some of the violence in the short term,” Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) echoed in a conference call with reporters Tuesday. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that as long as U.S. troops are present that they are going to be doing outstanding work.”

Non-candidate Congressional Democrats seem to be changing their message, as well.

House Democratic leaders held an early morning conference call yesterday with House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), honing a new message: Of course an influx of U.S. troops has improved security in Iraq, but without any progress on political reconciliation, the sweat and blood of American forces has been for naught…

As Bryan Preston would say, keep moving those goal posts, Democrats. For the record, Democratic Senators Dick Durbin and Bob Casey have acknowledged the surge is making progress. Senator Hillary Clinton has said that our “change of tactics” are making progress in Iraq. Congressman Jerry McNerney (D-Calif) has said (upon returning from Iraq) that he’ll be more flexible with timelines and troop withdrawals. Congressman Brian Baird (D-Wash) (also upon returning) acknowledged progress and says we need to stay longer.

Regardless of Rahm Emanuel’s statement that Democrats aren’t wavering, here’s what McNerney said in an interview yesterday:

He said Democrats should be willing to negotiate with the generals in Iraq over just how much more time they might need. And, he said, Democrats should move beyond their confrontational approach, away from tough-minded, partisan withdrawal resolutions, to be more conciliatory with Republicans who might also be looking for a way out of the war.

“We should sit down with Republicans, see what would be acceptable to them to end the war and present it to the president, start negotiating from the beginning,” he said, adding, “I don’t know what the [Democratic] leadership is thinking. Sometimes they’ve done things that are beyond me.”

If you figure it out, let the rest of us know.