Reply #57: Oh, they both fell into a trap, AP... [View All]

[IrateCitizen]

I heard both Kerry and Edwards say repeatedly that they voted for the IWR based on the intelligence they had at the time, and that they both believed that Iraq was a credible threat at the time.

The thing that kills me though is that someone like Sen. Russ Feingold didn't seem to think that Iraq was a credible threat, or that the intelligence told him so. Feingold's Democratic colleagues in the Senate all pressured him to vote for the Patriot Act and for the IWR, reminding him that he would be in a tough re-election campaign and he didn't want to hurt his re-election chances.

Feingold, to his immense credit, didn't vote for the resolution, just as he didn't vote against the Patriot Act. He then had to face a formidable, millionaire opponent in his re-election bid. Due to his stands, not in spite of them, he handily won re-election, polling some 135,000 votes more than the Presidential ticket in Wisconsin.

The GOP was able to turn the IWR vote back against Kerry and Edwards so many times it wasn't funny. Maybe I'm biased because I opposed this war from the beginning and got to the point that I would have gone to military prison rather than be sent over there (while I was still in the Army Reserves). But I just have a hard time seeing their stances as anything BUT political opportunism. I NEVER got past those votes they made, no matter how much I tried.

I guess this just helps prove Kevin Phillips' assessment on last week's NOW that we've been stuck with nothing but second-rate Presidential candidates for some time now, with little else on the horizon for the foreseeable future. I don't think that political courage and principle are too much to ask for in a leader.

But hey, that's just me -- I operate from the progressive fringe.