Saturday was the international conference on Iraq featuring all of Iraq's neighbors, including Iran and Syria. The US was in the room as well.

Major shift in our diplomatic strategy? Not quite. Here's the Associated Press dispatch:

In their first direct talks since the Iraq war began, U.S. and Iranian envoys traded harsh words and blamed each other for Iraq's crisis Saturday...

...During the talks, U.S. envoy David Satterfield pointed to his briefcase, which he said contained documents proving that Iran is arming Shiite Muslim militias in Iraq.

"Your accusations are merely a cover for your failures in Iraq," Iran's chief envoy Abbas Araghchi shot back...

But that's not the story the White House wants to tell.

It wants Americans to believe it's really giving diplomacy the ol' college try, lest the public think it's hell-bent on permanent occupation and expanded war.

So it sent ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, to NBC's Meet The Press.

Khalilzad made no mention of any harsh exchange, instead playing up the conference as "constructive" and a "good meeting."

There's a huge risk in allowing the Bushies to give the impression that they are sincere about diplomacy.

Because when Iraq continues to disintegrate, neocon forces will be spinning hard that diplomacy with Iran failed.

When in fact no good-faith efforts were ever made.

Unfortunately, on ABC's This Week, Dem Sen. Jim Webb was praising the conference as a "very important confidence builder in the region" because "we now have the beginnings of a true diplomatic process in place."

Webb has been pushing for regional diplomacy for years, so it's understandable why he wants to be consistent.

But he can be consistent while still setting an appropriate bar for the While House.

That regional diplomacy will only work if there is a sincere effort to find common ground. Signals of further regime change will negate the whole effort.

It's not just Webb. Coordinated Democratic messaging on Iraq and beyond has been nonexistent in recent days, as Congressional leaders are preoccupied with internal vote counting at the expense of media strategy.

So there's been little organized response to these developments.

Once can only hope that will change once the votes -- for establishing a deadline for troop redeployment -- are nailed down.