Every once in a great while, a single quote manages to clarify an entire convoluted political struggle. When last we checked in on our three top-tier Democratic candidates, they were locked in a death-struggle not simply over Iraq policy, but over their own records with respect to the timeline of that policy.

To hear Barack Obama tell it, he’s opposed the war from the start, and pushed hardest to end it in the Senate.

Hillary Clinton sees her own record as all but indistinguishable from Obama’s, but claims herself to have led Senate Democrats on the issue.

And John Edwards repeatedly paints both Obama and Clinton as cautious followers rather than strong leaders in the anti-war push.

So who to believe? What about VDB’s man, Russ Feingold?

Feingold has distinguished himself during the Bush Presidency as the Democrat Most Likely to Get It Right, on issue after issue. But most especially on the Iraq War, he has brought an astonishing clarity and conviction to Senate debate. One by one, the Senate is clearly moving to his once-radical position.

Feingold’s take on the top three? It’s fairly blunt, and all the more bracing for that directness. Russ is an Obama man on this one. From yesterday’s Chicago Tribune:

“I regard him as clearly stronger [on Iraq] than Sen. Clinton, indeed than [former] Sen. Edwards,” Feingold said. “Of all the people I’ve worked with that are running for president, I think Sen. Obama probably made the proposal that was most helpful in moving the [Senate Democratic] Caucus in the direction I would like to see it go.”

Now that’s clarity.

Worth remembering mid-way through the next debate, when the moderator says the word Iraq, and all three candidates move instantly into their respective, comfortable grooves.

Worth remembering that the issue doesn’t have to be so complicated. And that for Feingold, who knows the grooves better than anyone alive perhaps, it apparently isn’t.