Hillary Clinton Says She Wouldn't Have Voted For Iraq War

[CatWoman]

December 18, 2006 4:02 PM

ABC News' David Chalian Reports: As Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton continues to assess a possible presidential candidacy and the contours of a Democratic nomination fight, she has taken another step away from her 2002 vote authorizing President Bush to attack Iraq by saying that she "wouldn't have voted that way" if she knew everything she knows now.

Clinton has often been asked if she regrets her vote authorizing military action and she usually answers that question with an artful dodge, saying that she accepts responsibility for the vote and suggesting that if the Senate had all the information it has today (no WMD, troubled post-war military planning, etc. . .), there would never have been a vote on the Senate floor.

However, she has never gone as far as some of her potential rivals for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination -- who also voted for the war -- and called her vote a mistake or declared that she would have cast her vote differently with all the facts presently available to her -- until now.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2006/12/hillary_clinton.html

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. OK, fine.

But how is it that some people in Congress did manage to figure out that the IWR was a bad idea? Why should we give Hillary (or any of the other damn fools who gave Bush a blank check) a pass on this just because she's ever so conveniently sort of recanting now?

[QuestionAll...]

3. another weasel move.

gawd I'm sick of these phonies.

[Warren DeMontague]

2. ...if she'd known all those flags would get burned by people playing video games with porn in them.

:thumbsup:

[Cleita]

4. Sorry but we all knew everything back then. Scott Ritter and

Hans Blix told us. If we knew, I can't believe that she and every senator in Washington didn't unless they were in a cave in the Himalayas somewhere.

I wrote a letter to DiFi telling her I would never vote for her again because of her vote. She, who seldom answers your mail, did this time with some back peddling about it was REALLY about presenting it to the UN.

Sorry ladies, both of you made the wrong decision and I have a long memory.

[Cha]

12. And a whole hellava lot of her

constituents knew, too. And she put us on Ignore.

[Stephanie]

19. Hans Blix, Scott Ritter, and the MILLION of us who marched in NYC

and the MANY MILLIONS who marched ALL AROUND THE WORLD in protest.

[mike_c]

5. so if it was a crime against humanity that turned out differently...

...she'd feel better about it? :puke:

[jgraz]

6. DING!

We deserve a better president than this.

[montanacowboy]

7. PFFFFFFFFFT

Opportunistic political calculating ...
I don't care what she says, she will never get my vote

[Demobrat]

8. Hindsight is 20-20

but I prefer a president with foresight.

[pinto]

9. This has happened before: Tonkin Gulf Resolution

Tonkin Gulf Resolution

On 2 August 1964, the USS Maddox, engaged in an electronic spying operation in the Tonkin Gulf, was involved in a firefight with North Vietnamese PT boats. On 4 August, the Maddox was apparently attacked again in international waters. Although that second attack was never confirmed, President Lyndon B. Johnson informed the American people that he was retaliating against North Vietnam's aggression by ordering air attacks on its military installations and that he was also asking Congress for its support in the form of a congressional resolution.

Drafted weeks earlier by the executive, this resolution was designed to grant the president the authority he desired to protect and defend American interests in Southeast Asia. Managing the Senate floor debate on behalf of the administration was Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, a respected member of that body who also was a good friend of the president. He sought to quell existing doubts about the seemingly open-ended nature of the resolution by informing several skeptical colleagues that the president sought no wider war in Southeast Asia. According to Fulbright, that was the president's intent and the nature of his policy. Thus, given the strong public support for the president's action and congressional unwillingness to challenge his authority, Congress passed the resolution on 7 August 1964 with only two dissenting votes in the Senate.

The resolution charged that North Vietnam had attacked American ships lawfully present in international waters, which was part of a systematic campaign of aggression it has been waging against its neighbors. Congress approved and supported "the determination of the President, as Commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression." In addition, it also authorized the president "to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to assist any member or protocol state … requesting assistance in defense of its freedom."

President Johnson believed passage of the resolution had given him the necessary legal authority to take whatever action he deemed appropriate in Vietnam. But as disillusionment with the war widened and deepened, and as more information surfaced about provocative American actions in the gulf prior to the alleged incident involving the Maddox, Congress grew increasingly unhappy with how it had been deceived by the president in August 1964. Consequently, it repealed the resolution, which became invalid in 1971. President Richard M. Nixon, disregarding Congress's action, continued to wage war in Vietnam while acting in his capacity as commander in chief.

The Resolution was repealed in 1971.

At the time (1964) the Democratic Senate was:

Anderson - NM
Bartlett - AK
Bass - TN
Bayh - IN
Bible - NV
Brewster - MD
Burdick - ND
Byrd, Harry - VA
Byrd, Robert - WV
Cannon - NV
Church - ID
Clark - PA
Dodd - CT
Douglas - IL
Eastland - MS
Edmondson - OK
Ellender - LA
Engle - CA
Ervin - NC
Fulbright - AR
Gore, Sr. - TN
Gruening - AK
Harris - OK
Hart, Philip - MI
Hartke - IN
Hayden, Carl - AZ
Hill - AL
Holland - FL
Humphrey - MN
Inyoue - HI
Jackson - WA
Johnston - SC
Jordan - NC
Kefauver - TN
Kennedy, Edward - MA
Lausche - OH
Long, Edward - MO
Long, Russell - LA
Magnuson - WA
Mansfield - MT
McCarthy - MN
McClellan - AR
McGee - WY
McGovern - SD
McIntyre- NH
McNamara - MI
Metcalf - MT
Mondale - MN
Monroney - OK
Montoya - NM
Morse - OR
Moss - UT
Muskie - ME
Nelson - WI
Neuberger - OR
Pastore - RI
Pell - RI
Proxmire - WI
Randolph - WV
Ribicoff - CT
Robertson - VA
Russell - GA
Slainger - CA
Smathers - FL
Sparkman - AL
Stennis - MS
Symington - MO
Talmadge - GA
Walters - TN
Williams - NJ
Yarborough - TX
Young, Stephen - OH

[cali]

Yep. In the speech he gave prior to the vote

my Senator, Pat Leahy compared the IWR to the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.

[WI_DEM]

29. Yep, even George McGovern voted for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

[AZBlue]

10. Funny....others say the same thing and it's a great revelation to be celebrated.

Hillary says it and she's a scheming, manipulative opportunist.

Sooooo predictable.

(this reply isn't to the OP - its to the moaners on this thread)

[wuushew]

11. Did you miss the recent spate of Edwards threads?

There is plenty of bashing to go around.

[rebel with a cause]

18. I aree there is plenty of blame to go around

And I am not defending Hillary. She voted for giving bush the power when she shouldn't have, but she didn't co-sponsor it on give a speech urging others to vote for it, or help write the patriot act. Also, she was still in Congress and running for re-election while Edwards was out in the private sector preparing his run for the presidency. Not a big Hillary fan, but less of one for Edwards.

[Marr]

15. What are you suggesting?

That people who don't like her just don't like... what? Women?

I don't like her because she's a DLC stuffed shirt, corporte servant. I've never celebrated such a meaningless statement from anyone.

[AZBlue]

25. Have some more kool-aid....

eom

[Marr]

32. Thanks for the intelligent reply.

She's not DLC? Feel free to offer more than a sentence fragment in your response.

[William769]

16. And there seem to be plenty here.

Along with the other 7 threads on this topic.

[tritsofme]

13. So I hope everyone takes her recantation with the same good faith

that some supporters give to Kerry or Edwards.

[Marr]

14. Wow, brilliant.

She should've voted no based on the information that was available to anyone with an internet connection or a subscription to a real newspaper.

To say that she'd have voted no if she knew it would be a political nightmare and total failure is saying less than nothing. Color me seriously unimpressed.

[buddysmellgood]

17. Are you sure Hillary? That's a pretty bold statement.

:sarcasm:

[Stephanie]

20. "everything she knows now" = the poll numbers of voters opposed to the war

Hillary has no moral compass, only ambition. We challenged her on just this issue in the NY primary and she REFUSED TO DISCUSS the issue, refused to debate it, would not take a stand. NOW she's recanting? I want to know what "everything she knows now" means. I'm quite sure it means if I had known the majority would turn against this war and hurt my chances in 2008, I would have opposed it.. I'm sorry to the Hillary fans but she is an empty vessel, an utter narcissist who cares only about her career and not a whit about the country or our future.

[fujiyama]

21. LOL

She didn't have much of a choice.

If she said otherwise, she'd be in the "I'm as delusional as Joe Lieberman in my support of Bush" camp.

This is welcoming, but awfully late and IMO shows pretty bad judgment and foresight in the first place. I want someone to lead - to show correct judgment and show political courage, even when it may not be popular or go with conventional wisdom... not just one that follows the approval rating of the Iraq war (If Hillary knows anything, it's a poll - and especially one showing this war at an all time low in terms of popularity).

[Solly Mack]

22. I'm sure all the dead, tortured, and maimed appreciate every

member of the US Congress, both House and Senate, who have distanced themselves from their IWR vote in one way or another...for whatever reasons, expedient or otherwise, they had for doing so.

Heaping ashes with the remains of lives forever lost for lies.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

23. Now that it's fashionable to be agains the war...a lot of recantations.

Not that the polls have anything to do with her original vote or her recantation...

Oooops..sorry about that. Too bad about the 650,000 dead Iraqis and 3000 dead Americans.

[symbolman]

24. Admittedly information as held back

and a LOT of Congress were supplied with cherry picked information, BUT, the State Dept MADE DAMN SURE in the report passed around to Congress that there was a statement by the STATE DEPT Intelligence operatives that SADDAM DID NOT HAVE NUKE CAPABILITY.

When this raised doubt in Congress Durbin and others demanded MORE INFO, so the White House supplied, through Tenent, a WHITE PAPER that was Written almost exclusively by the IRAQ Group, which included, Bush, Rice, Gonzo, Cheney, ROve, RUmsfeld, and a few others.

Durbin complained that HE was NOT allowed by LAW to challenge some of this Information or expose it to not only the public, but other Congress folks as well.

But they DID KNOW at least that much, as well as the Hans Blix report, etc.

I was watching Hillary, she was the Bellweather person on this for me, if SHE voted then I was going to have nothing more to do with her, because I thought SHE was intelligent and in the know having been the first lady to SMELL BULLSHIT.

But she voted FOR IT. And let's not forget that BYRD was ALL OVER THIS, screaming about the abrogation of the Power of the Senate to declare WAR.

They KNEW, they'll say they didn't but they DID. I studied all of this for a year making my film about PLAME, and how it all came about.

It was Not politically expedient at that time for them to vote NO on this, so they voted FOR IT, as Rove had them boxed in.

Okay, so she wouldn't have voted for it, then is she willing to back IMPEACHMENT over the LIES that led her to a false vote now?

[Jcrowley]

26. Triangulation

Hillary Clinton:

"I do not believe that we should allow this to be an open-ended commitment without limits or end, nor do I believe that we can or should pull out of Iraq immediately. If last December's elections lead to a successful Iraqi government, that should allow us to start drawing down our troops during this year while leaving behind a smaller contingent in safe areas with greater intelligence and quick-strike capabilities. This will help us stabilize that new Iraqi government. It will send a message to Iran that they do not have a free hand in Iraq despite their considerable influence and personal and religious connections there. It will also send a message to Israel and our other allies, like Jordan, that we will continue to do what we can to provide the stability necessary to prevent the terrorists from getting any further foothold than they currently have."

She wants permanent military bases.

"Obviously, I've thought about that a lot in the months since," she said. "No, I don't regret giving the president authority because at the time it was in the context of weapons of mass destruction, grave threats to the United States, and clearly, Saddam Hussein had been a real problem for the international community for more than a decade."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/21/iraq.hillary/

[Generator]

27. Also know as her 2008 presidential announcment

OH and she's on the View tomorrow. Watch for THAT tough grilling. Ha.
She's going after the housewives. I am not amused.

[leftofthedial]

28. I'm not buying it for a minute

WE knew the bush cabal was lying and we don't have access to the resources of a US Senator.

If she didn't know enough then to vote know, she was a fool or negligently lazy (or putting political expediency above principle).

I don't believe her.

[J Miles]

30. Agreed

You took the words right out of my mouth.

[David Zephyr]

31. In other words, Hillary is saying that still another man has deceived her.

Think about that long and hard.

I'm glad she is finally admitting her mistake although that next to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, everyone else on earth had already come to that conclusion.

The worst thing is that here she is admitting to being deceived by yet still another man. Not exactly a thing to be talking about.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

33. Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.....

Now that it's politically convenient.

[Seeking Serenity]

34. Gee, if I had known that my vote would later be

a political liability, I wouldn't have cast it.

Spare me, Hil. I'll stick with a real progessive.

Go Kucinich!

[NNN0LHI]

35. I believe her. I believe her. I believe her

I believe her.

:eyes:

Don