speaking of dems, the hillary vs kerry flap gets hotter. From the NYTimes today. It seems to me that hillary is betting on a fair outcome (some success) in iraq and doesnt want to be on the cut and run side with kerry, gore, pelosi and murtha. I also think she is tough on fp matters in general. Maggie Thatcher personality on FP and Eleanor Roosevelt personality on domestic makes an interesting combo. I could vote for her. Could be a powerful combo if the american people catch on.
The Opposition
Clinton and Kerry Show Democratic Divide on Troop Withdrawal
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and ROBIN TONER
Published: June 14, 2006
WASHINGTON, June 13 — At the moment that the White House is again trying to cast them as weak on national security, Democrats are debating their stance on the war in Iraq with new intensity, with some of the party's leading figures — including potential 2008 presidential candidates — sharply divided over whether the United States should set a deadline for bringing troops home.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, faced boos and shouts of "bring them home" from an audience of liberal Democrats here on Tuesday as she argued against setting a deadline, wading into what she called a "difficult conversation." Thirty minutes later, the same crowd applauded wildly as Senator John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, the party's 2004 presidential candidate, implored the Senate to back his call for a six-month deadline for withdrawal, and said he regretted his initial support for the war.
"It is essential to acknowledge that the war was a mistake — to say the simple words that contain more truth than pride," Mr. Kerry said, adding: "It was wrong and I was wrong to vote for that resolution."
With President Bush making a high-profile visit to Baghdad, and his chief political adviser, Karl Rove, having unleashed a sharp attack on Democrats over the war, Republicans said Democratic infighting over Iraq would hurt Democrats as the midterm elections approached.
On a day when Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appeared on Capitol Hill to press the administration's message that Iraq was making progress, Representative Thomas M. Reynolds of New York, the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, described Democrats as "all over the lot" on Iraq.
His Democratic counterpart, Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, said that the war would prove a burden for Republicans, given its unpopularity and the perception that the White House has no withdrawal plan.
Representative Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, said the House Democratic caucus shared "a pretty universal disgust" with the Bush administration's management of the war.
He estimated that 50 percent or more of the caucus supported the position of Representative John P. Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has called for a speedy pullout of American combat troops.
That division was on dramatic display before thousands of liberals at a "Take Back America" convention on Tuesday.
Mrs. Clinton, while well received on other issues, found herself talking over some boos when she argued against a deadline for troop withdrawal. "I have to just say it — I do not think it is a smart strategy either for the president to continue with his open-ended commitment, which I think does not put enough pressure on the new Iraqi government, nor do I think it is smart strategy to set a date certain," Mrs. Clinton said. "I do not agree that that is in the best interests of our troops or our country."
Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the minority leader, was warmly applauded when she reiterated her support for the Murtha proposal.
Both the Senate and the House have scheduled extensive debates and voting this week that will deal with American policy in Iraq. On Thursday, House Republicans will present a resolution that declares the war in Iraq to be a critical part of the "global war on terror" and declares, "It is not in the national security interest of the United States to set an arbitrary date for the withdrawal or redeployment" of troops.
Democrats scoffed at the Republican resolution as pure tactics — "a political not a policy statement," in the words of Representative Steny H. Hoyer, the Democratic whip.
But Democratic leaders in the House and Senate are scrambling to produce their own, unifying resolutions on Iraq, that would go beyond the language they embraced last year, calling for 2006 to be a year of "significant transition" in Iraq.
In the Senate, a variety of amendments are expected to be offered this week to a major defense bill — including Mr. Kerry's proposal for a withdrawal of most American combat troops by the end of the year, combined with a summit meeting to find a political and diplomatic solution to Iraqi's internal strife.
A vote on a Kerry-style amendment could create a hard choice for Democrats in the Senate: antagonize the party's antiwar base or provide fodder for Republican attacks. Senate Democratic leaders, not surprisingly, were seeking a less stark alternative to put before their members — including a possible call for a "responsible redeployment" of American troops starting this year.
nytimes.com |
