Political Football

Below, find my letter to the editor related to this online (follow the link) discussion:

http://www.muscatinejournal.com/articles/2007/05/24/opinion/letters/doc4655acece1e44092605295.txt

I was going to reply via the ONLINE Journal to Mr. Hatfield’s treatise in support of Mr. Edwards ONE more time, but thought this deserved a separate letter. I apologize to Mr. Hatfield for “piling on” as I would have been dutifully penalized if this were football.

In the online discussion thread – Paco said that Mr. Hatfield “didn’t bother to post any accomplishments of Edwards while in Congress. If you look at history for results, you won’t find much in Edwards’ history.”

I wanted to tell Paco that he was incorrect. Mr. Edwards did something very important when he was senator. In the fall of 2002, he voted to give the President the power to send our military into Iraq.

When that vote was taken, US Legislative bodies were briefed with the same information the President had. But then again the polls were in favor of toppling Saddam, and the polls surged higher still when Saddam was captured in December 2003.

In the fall of 2004 – In one of his last interviews before the election (CNN OCT 21) Mr. Edwards said that stopping terrorists before they harm us is: “by far the most effective way to win this war on terrorism.” A few days earlier he complained the Iraq invasion had turned “the focus away from the war on terror.”

In 2006 as he started to think about another presidential run, he did something that no one in office has done yet that I recall; Mr. Edwards apologized for that 2002 vote. Hindsight is usually 20/20. In Edwards’ case it was an easy separation since he was no longer a sitting senator. I say shame on him for bowing to the latest opinion poll. Wars are never popular when they are being fought.

Today, when the drum beat against the President and the Military waging this war stifles discussion, John Edwards says there IS no War on Terror, “the President is using it as a Bumper Sticker”. (And no you cannot support the troops without supporting the mission – ask them.)

Mr. Hatfield, if you want to vote for a President who will read opinion polls and change their minds on that whim, go with God. Polls can be biased by question phrasing, telephone polls are less reliable every year with fewer people relying on land lines because “cell phone only” users are excluded from polls and other factors.

If I were a democrat looking for a candidate, I might look at Bob Kerrey who said this week on the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page:

“The critics who bother me the most are those who ordinarily would not be on the side of supporting dictatorships, who are arguing today that only military intervention can prevent the genocide of Darfur, or who argued yesterday for military intervention in Bosnia, Somalia and Rwanda to ease the sectarian violence that was tearing those places apart.

Suppose we had not invaded Iraq and Hussein had been overthrown by Shiite and Kurdish insurgents. Suppose al Qaeda then undermined their new democracy and inflamed sectarian tensions to the same level of violence we are seeing today. Wouldn’t you expect the same people who are urging a unilateral and immediate withdrawal to be urging military intervention to end this carnage? I would.”

Vote for Bob, Mr. Hatfield, Vote for Bob. I am still voting for Rudy.

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