My mother (89) won't allow politics to be discussed at the dinner table, so this all occured after we had gone to the living room.
In the past, I had attempted to ignore their barbs, I didn't know how to battle them. A freeper gave me the tactic of putting the ball in their court with questions, it may not have gone as smoothly as I have presented it here, there were many "now wait a minute, let me finish" interjections on my part. I also had to stop them and ask them to answer my question, as my brother and sister will change the subject if you let them.
They went on to the "disarray in the Republican camp" mantra, along with predictions of doom for the pubbies in the next election, but they never brought up Iraq again.
"They never brought up Iraq again".
It sounds like a win to me. We all have those smug Liberal relatives, like your brother and sister, who are constamtly doing their missionary work. At least you were able to shut them up on one subject. Good for you.
I'm sure you're going to get this from them again, and there are at least two good options here:
"Isn't that what you predicted for 2004? And look how that turned out."
Or, if you really want to turn the knife :
"NO WAY! Ever since we got control of the voting boxes way back in 2000, EVERY election belongs to us."
From the brief description you've given of them, that last one is a line they've discussed at least among themselves many times as to the reason they're losing elelctions. Coming from you, it will bring them up short.
I should really start keeping a notebook of leftist predictions, so that I can ID them when they don't come true. The only one that I've used recently is the draft; Michael Moore, Howard Dean, and even Chuck Hagel predicted one if Bush won in '04. So far, no draft.