Well…this is refreshingly honest.
Now, [Cinton’s] advisers say, a vote to withdraw authorization would make plain to antiwar and liberal Democrats that she was repudiating her 2002 vote. The hope among her aides was that demands by antiwar voters for her to apologize for her vote would be rendered moot.
How would her refusal to apologize for a vote that has cost over 600,000 people their lives be rendered moot, you might ask?
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed Thursday that Congress repeal the authority it gave President Bush in 2002 to invade Iraq, injecting presidential politics into the Congressional debate over financing the war.
Effing brilliant. And what would this accomplish?
“It is time to reverse the failed policies of President Bush and to end this war as soon as possible,” Mrs. Clinton said as she joined Senator Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, in calling for a vote to end the authority as of Oct. 11, the fifth anniversary of the original vote.
And?
Even if Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Byrd succeed in their effort, it is not clear whether President Bush would have to withdraw troops, or if he could resist by claiming that Congress cannot withdraw its earlier authorization but instead has to deny money for the war to achieve that result.
The question could spark a constitutional debate over war powers that only the federal courts could resolve.
Wonderful.
If you are trying to decide who to support in the Democratic primaries, don’t fall for this crap. I don’t care who you support, just don’t fall for this crap. Because that is what it is. It’s crap. Hillary Clinton and her TNR buddies have been hammering war critics from the beginning. Now she wants to be one of us? Now she wants to be our leader? No thanks. Get lost. Go do something productive…running for President isn’t one of those things. You lost your chance to be a leader on ending the war a long, long time ago when you sat by and watched your campaign team savage anyone that questioned the war.
You want a leader? Here’s a guy that really apologized (a long time ago):
After Mr. Byrd and Mrs. Clinton announced their plan, Mr. Edwards quickly put out a statement urging Congress to focus on withdrawing troops and not revoking the 2002 authorization.
“Congress should stand its ground and not back down to him,” Mr. Edwards said. “They should send him the same bill he just vetoed, one that supports our troops, ends the war and brings them home.”
See? How hard was that? That’s leadership. I don’t even agree with Edwards that we can just send him the same bill, but he’s staking out a tough position. He’s playing hardball. Why don’t you, Hillary, call up your best buddy Mark Pryor and a bunch of your other blue dog/DLC bestest buddies and tell them where the sun rises and sets, and get their asses off the fence on ending this damn war? Why?
Because you don’t want this war to end too soon. You want it tied around the President’s neck. You need it as an issue. That’s not leadership. You’re as transparent as rice-paper, Ms. Clinton.
You’ll probably fool some people, but I know, and the whole blogosphere knows, and history will record…that you were a hawk on this war for over four years.
Nice try, though.
