HILLARY HEDGES HER WAR BET
NEW YORK POST
Editorial
December 2, 2005
After long standing with the always-tiny sweet-reason wing of the Democratic Party on the War on Terror, Sen. Hillary Clinton is tacking to the Cindy Sheehan side.
The issue: Her "yes" vote on the Senate resolution authorizing the Iraq War.
In an e-mail addressed ostensibly to her strongest supporters, the senator writes: "I take responsibility for my vote, and I, along with a majority of Americans, expect the president and his administration to take responsibility for the false assurances, faulty evidence and mismanagement of the war."
But why "take responsibility" for something you believed to be correct in the first place?
Clearly, Hillary Clinton now deems her vote for war to have been a (political?) mistake.
And, so it seems, she's re-triangulating.
This is disappointing; up to this point, we've been pleasantly surprised at the senator's willingness to resist the pleadings of her party's howling-at-the-moon Left — including even "Peace Mom" Sheehan (why not "Surrender Mom"?), who singled Clinton out specifically for continuing to support the Iraq War.
In July, we noted that "In her four years in office, Sen. Clinton has been one of the most supportive members of her party on the conflict in Iraq and on the broader War on Terror. Whatever motives one might wish to impute, she seems to recognize the security paradigm that undergirds politics in the 21st century."
When she partnered with Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) to sponsor a bill expanding the Army by 80,000, we stated that the two Democrats "are doing what members of the loyal opposition are supposed to do. They are stepping up to the plate with a legitimate proposal that neither the administration nor the Republican congressional majority can reasonably ignore."
That was then. Today, the contrast between the two senators could not be more stark: Sen. Lieberman remains committed to victory in Iraq. Earlier this week, he wrote a powerful op-ed for The Wall Street Journal rejecting the "cut and run" approach and urging that the current course be followed through.
The president quoted Lieberman in his Wednesday "victory strategy" address at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Meanwhile, Sen. Clinton — seeing polls showing the American public appearing to turn against the Iraq War — heads off in the other direction.
In its own way, this capitulation is as foolish as the anti-war Left's "Withdraw now!" strategy. Will they really believe Hillary's sudden change of heart?
Sen. Clinton may learn, to her dismay, that a similar rule applies in war and in politics: Americans will follow and continue to support individuals of principle — even if they disagree with a specific decision or strategy.
However, finger-in-the-wind waverers who buckle at the first sign of adversity rarely find favor in any camp.
In the end, of course, that's between Clinton and her political advisers.
Meanwhile, Americans who care truly about winning the War on Terror have cause to be disappointed in the junior senator from New York.
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