WSJ praises "hawkish" Hillary, condemns "dovish Dems" for voting against Kyl/Lieberman Amendment

[flpoljunkie]

Funny, Senator Jim Webb says this about the Kyl-Lieberman amendment: “At best, it’s a deliberate attempt to divert attention from a failed diplomatic policy. At worst, it could be read as a backdoor method of gaining congressional validation for military action, without one hearing and without serious debate.” He added that Lieberman-Kyl “is Dick Cheney’s fondest pipe dream.”

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/13015.html

Democrats and Iran
Hillary outsmarts her dovish competition.

Friday, September 28, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

Kudos to Hillary Clinton--yes, you read that right--for her Senate vote this week urging the U.S. to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization. That's more than can be said for her primary competition of Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson and John Edwards, who assailed her on this score at Wednesday's Democratic Presidential candidates debate at Dartmouth. These are men who seem to fear the Netroots more than the mullahs.

Mrs. Clinton's vote was on a symbolic amendment offered by Connecticut maverick Joe Lieberman and Republicans Jon Kyl and Norm Coleman. After marshaling the evidence of Iran's terrorist activities in Iraq, the amendment stated that "it is a critical national interest of the United States to prevent from turning Shi'a militia into a Hezbollah-like force that could serve its interests inside Iraq." Twenty-one Democrats, including Joe Biden and John Kerry, apparently found this too shocking to support and voted nay, as did Republicans Chuck Hagel and Dick Lugar.

We probably shouldn't complain when 76 Senators, including a majority of Democrats, show some foreign-policy sense. Still, it's telling that the Democrats only agreed to the amendment after demanding that its language be edited to remove a statement that "it should be the policy of the United States to stop inside Iraq the violent activities and destabilizing influence" of Iran. Also left on the cutting-room floor, under Democratic duress, was a call "to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq" with respect to Iran and its proxies.

The mullahs are supplying the shaped-explosive charges to Shiite militias that are killing or maiming Americas in Iraq. But these Senators are afraid even to suggest that the U.S. might use some kind of military force to save the lives of American soldiers. And they want to be Commander in Chief?

At Dartmouth, Mrs. Clinton defended her vote by noting that it "gives us the options to be able to impose sanctions on the primary leaders to try to begin to put some teeth into all this talk about dealing with Iran." That's right. With Americans having just had a Close Encounter of the Third Kind with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, it's no surprise that her relative hawkishness is only widening her primary lead.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010664

[Sparkly]

1. "Connecticut maverick Joe Lieberman" -- oh, brother!

I still don't see any convincing reason for this resolution nor for voting in favor of it. Are they going to keep coming up with these things in ever-escalating terms, such as "Iran is bad" then "Iran is REALLY bad" then "Iran is really bad and dangerous" etc. until they've "made a case" for force? That's what I'm wary of.

[flpoljunkie]

5. Webb: It could be read as a backdoor method of gaining congressional validation for military action

Apparently, no need for further resolutions or amendments. Congress just has to trust George W. Bush--like they did when they passed the Iraq War Resolution. Remember how well that worked out!

[flordehinojos]

2. once upon a time and long ago, hillary ...

greeted mrs. araft with a kiss on the cheek .... hillary received a ton of hell for having done so ... (as if that kiss might have meant alliance with arafat and not just common courtesy, or customary practice in the world outside the united states) ... i've since wondered what lesson was forced down hillary's throat as a result, and i even wonder just how much of that revulsion to a ton of hell may be playing in any of hillary's decisions re the middle east.

[flpoljunkie]

3. Is "the kiss" the reason Hillary recently said Jersusalem should not be divided. I think not.

[5X]

4. Kinda underlines the real reason for the amendment in the first place,

doesn't it. Obvious that the neocons want this to bring it on.

[MadHound]

6. Nice to see ol' Rupert's spin machine going to work for Hillary

This is exactly why she sucked up to the man, to get the active backing of one of the most evil men in the world, along with his media machine.

You can tell a lot about people by the company they keep, right Hillary?

[blm]

7. Rupert Murdoch and his fascist cohorts have their champion to rally around.

.