Harry Reid on CNN said the war is winnable militarily.

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HOWARD DEAN, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: The idea that we're going to win this war is an idea that unfortunately is just plain wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So there's no specific timeframe, but I would say the withdrawal ought to start now, right after the elections, December 15th.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: There is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women.

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BLITZER: It's a tough ad. Our senior political correspondent, Candy Crowley, is joining us now with more on this ad that's simply outraging a lot of Democrats and other folks, as well.

Candy, what's the aim of this ad based on what you've heard from the Republicans?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the aim of the ad, first of all, is the 15 million people they have on their list. So this has been e-mailed out to real Republican activists. What it aims to do is exploit pretty much what has happened this week and has been interpreted in the media and elsewhere as a split in the Democratic Party as to how they feel about the war in Iraq.

I can tell you when word of this ad first got out last night, Democrats were worried about how they were going to respond. Today, it was left to Senator Harry Reid who leads the Democratic Party to follow up on this and to say how he feels about it.

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SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: This is not a political campaign. The president should be the commander in chief, not the campaigner in chief. This is not the time for Karl Rove. This is the time for leadership.

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CROWLEY: Senator Reid went on to say that he felt that Howard Dean, among other people, had done a lot for the Democratic Party, that he wishes that what the president would do would be to work with the Democrats on the Hill to come up with a plan for Iraq, Wolf.

BLITZER: Suppose, Candy, this started with Howard Dean's controversial comments earlier this week, comments that some Democrats weren't very happy with either.

CROWLEY: Well, it's true. I mean, here's Senator Reid, he's pulled to the left by Howard Dean, he's pulled to the right by Senator Lieberman. And he's in the middle sort of trying to pull his caucus together.

I can tell you that, first of all, when you ask him directly is this war winnable, Senator Reid says absolutely. Most Democrats believe it is absolutely winnable militarily, economically, and politically. As for Howard Dean and his remarks, I think it's fairly safe to say there's been kind of a meeting of the minds.

BLITZER: Candy Crowley.

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REID: And he understands that his job is to do what he can to energize Democrats at a grassroots level around the country, to raise money for the DNC and leave the policy-making to the Democrats in the House and the Senate. He understands that.

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CROWLEY: And of course, of the things that did upset the Democratic leadership this week was the fact that they felt that they did have a bit of a deal with Howard Dean when he became DNC chairman that he would go out and keep the party base happy and raise funds and not set policy. So they've just had that conversation again, Wolf.

BLITZER: I suppose the Democrats are going to respond in kind to this kind of tough ad. Thanks, Candy, very much. Candy Crowley, reporting for us.