Reply #9: thanks [View All]

[welshTerrier2]

i hated kerry's vote on the IWR ... for many months, i argued vigorously against supporting any candidate who supported bush's war ... and i make no excuses for Kerry's vote ... it was wrong no matter how he explains it ...

in response to your 2 points, i agree that Kerry's position has been that the war was not handled properly and that he thinks his vote on IWR was right ... i wouldn't make light of Kerry's opposition to the way Bush used war as a first option ... I strongly agree with Kerry's criticism of bush on this and I commend his position on urging a diplomatic approach ... but I still feel strongly that his IWR vote was dead wrong ...

one of the things you left out of your analysis of Kerry's Iraq position was that Kerry voted against the continued funding of this madness ... I give him tons of credit for doing that ... what sane person could vote to hand bush $87 billion to continue this madness ?? Kerry could easily be labelled a flip-flopper or some have said he did it for political gain ... well, who knows ... all I know is that he did the absolute right thing when he voted against giving bush more money ...

so, as one of Kerry's harshest critics strictly because of his IWR vote, I'm prepared to forgive and forget ... Kerry, btw, has an almost identical voting record to Ted Kennedy ... for years, he's been one of the most liberal Senators ...

I have no argument with those who would dismiss him solely on his IWR vote ... I was prepared to do so myself ... but I think we're missing an opportunity to understand what Kerry brings to the table in a head-to-head with bush ... I think he's far more experienced in both foreign policy and intelligence (spy stuff not smarts) than Dean ... and I think his pro-veteran agenda is very appealing ... Dean's position on Iraq wasn't so great either, btw ... I introduced Dean's campaign workers to DU in the very early days of the campaign ... I almost endorsed Dean and was planning to work for him ... but some of his Iraq statements were awful and in the end I just couldn't support him ...

To the extent that Kerry or any of our candidates attack each other on anything but the issues, I think they do a disservice to the party and the cause ... and it's no better when DU'ers contribute to that sort of sniping either ... this is real business ... we've got to get democrats back into power ... and we'd better do it damned soon ...

we need to be behind all our candidates and we need to ensure that we get the best possible chance to beat bush ...