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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (264390)	8/31/2008 4:37:34 PM
From: gamesmistress	Respond to of 793542

I would have loved it if Kerry had been asked that question....just being elected to the Senate doesn't really mean you have foreign policy experience per se. It means you get to listen to arguments pro and con a foreign policy bill and then you vote. It exposes you to the process, which is something, but isn't really experience. Here is Wikipedia's summary of Edwards' Senate career. It looks adequate but not impressive. It also doesn't mention that he didn't run for re-election because he knew he wouldn't win, and why that was so. Senate career Edwards won election to the U.S. Senate in 1998 as a Democrat running against incumbent Republican Senator Lauch Faircloth. Despite originally being the underdog, Edwards beat Faircloth by 51.2% to 47.0% — a margin of some 83,000 votes. During President Bill Clinton's 1999 impeachment trial in the Senate, Edwards was responsible for the deposition of witnesses Monica Lewinsky and fellow Democrat Vernon Jordan, Jr. During the 2000 presidential campaign, Edwards was on Democratic nominee Al Gore's vice presidential nominee "short list" (along with John Kerry and Joe Lieberman, Gore's eventual pick).[16] In his time in the Senate, Edwards co-sponsored 203 bills.[17] Among them was Lieberman's 2002 Iraq War Resolution (S.J.Res.46), which he co-sponsored along with 15 other senators, but which did not go to a vote;[18] he voted for replacement resolution (H.J Res. 114) in the full Senate to authorize the use of military force against Iraq, which passed by a vote of 77 to 23,[19] saying on October 10, 2002 that "Almost no one disagrees with these basic facts: that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and a menace; that he has weapons of mass destruction and that he is doing everything in his power to get nuclear weapons; that he has supported terrorists; that he is a grave threat to the region, to vital allies like Israel, and to the United States; and that he is thwarting the will of the international community and undermining the United Nations' credibility."[20] He defended his vote on an October 10, 2004 appearance on Meet the Press, saying "I would have voted for the resolution knowing what I know today, because it was the right thing to do to give the president the authority to confront Saddam Hussein...I think Saddam Hussein was a very serious threat. I stand by that, and that's why [John Kerry and I] stand behind our vote on the resolution".[21] However, he subsequently changed his mind about the war and apologized for that military authorization vote. Edwards also voted in favor of the Patriot Act. Among other positions, Edwards was generally pro-choice and supported affirmative action and the death penalty. One of his first sponsored bills was the Fragile X Research Breakthrough Act of 1999.[22] He was also the first person to introduce comprehensive anti-spyware legislation with the Spyware Control and Privacy Protection Act.[23] He advocated rolling back the Bush administration's tax cuts and ending mandatory minimum sentencing for non-violent offenders.[24] Edwards generally supported expanding legal immigration to the United States while working with Mexico to provide better border security and stop illegal trafficking.[24][25] Edwards served on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and U.S. Senate Committee on Judiciary, and was a member of the New Democrat Coalition. Before the 2004 Senate election, Edwards announced his retirement from the Senate and supported Erskine Bowles, former White House Chief of Staff, as the successor to his seat; Bowles, however, was defeated by Republican Richard Burr in the election. en.wikipedia.org