Comments on: Dems Walk an Anti-War Tightrope http://donklephant.com/2005/11/02/dems-walk-an-anti-war-tightrope/ Big Teeth. Huge Ass. Surprisingly Reasonable. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:03:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Chris http://donklephant.com/2005/11/02/dems-walk-an-anti-war-tightrope/comment-page-1/#comment-3410 Chris Fri, 04 Nov 2005 02:49:30 +0000 http://donklephant.com/?p=1247#comment-3410 I wish he had made more of a point of it during the campaign, but I clearly recall Kerry saying at the time of his vote that he was trusting the President to exhaust all other options before going to war, but that he felt it was important to give the President the authority to act if necessary. Several other Dems said essentially the same thing. The point about the Rule 21 maneuver, which granted may be difficult to communicate, is that the misuse of intelligence by the Administration is central to the decsion to go to war. The Administration likes to keep beating the drum that everyone looked at the same intelligence, but I don't believe that's true. Dick Cheney making repeated, unprecedented trips to Langley to bully analysts into intepreting intelligence his way, which means that what came out of the CIA was already skewed to the Administration's wishes. The Senate doesn't maintain its own intelligence service. It can only look at what comes out of the CIA and other agencies. If the Administration was gaming the system, then they should be held responsible. And the point isn't that the Democrats were lied to. It's that the American people were lied to. Everyone in politics who commits a major blunder or deception chants the same mantra: "Only losers look at the past. What happened happened. We should be looking to the future." The American people aren't that dumb, and they're not that forgiving about being lied to. Of course, all of this is based on speculation. I don't really know what happened with the intelligence, because somehow the Senate hasn't gotten around to looking into it. Until this week, that is. I wish he had made more of a point of it during the campaign, but I clearly recall Kerry saying at the time of his vote that he was trusting the President to exhaust all other options before going to war, but that he felt it was important to give the President the authority to act if necessary. Several other Dems said essentially the same thing.

The point about the Rule 21 maneuver, which granted may be difficult to communicate, is that the misuse of intelligence by the Administration is central to the decsion to go to war. The Administration likes to keep beating the drum that everyone looked at the same intelligence, but I don’t believe that’s true. Dick Cheney making repeated, unprecedented trips to Langley to bully analysts into intepreting intelligence his way, which means that what came out of the CIA was already skewed to the Administration’s wishes. The Senate doesn’t maintain its own intelligence service. It can only look at what comes out of the CIA and other agencies. If the Administration was gaming the system, then they should be held responsible. And the point isn’t that the Democrats were lied to. It’s that the American people were lied to.

Everyone in politics who commits a major blunder or deception chants the same mantra: “Only losers look at the past. What happened happened. We should be looking to the future.” The American people aren’t that dumb, and they’re not that forgiving about being lied to.

Of course, all of this is based on speculation. I don’t really know what happened with the intelligence, because somehow the Senate hasn’t gotten around to looking into it. Until this week, that is.

]]> By: kreiz http://donklephant.com/2005/11/02/dems-walk-an-anti-war-tightrope/comment-page-1/#comment-3380 kreiz Thu, 03 Nov 2005 15:41:37 +0000 http://donklephant.com/?p=1247#comment-3380 The Dems, "gullible, feckless and indecisive" on national security? I'm shocked. They've become the scions of Taft's isolationism- just as Bush has assumed the mantle of Wilsonian interventionism. History is a strange thing. Bull Moose is correct in reminding us that the GOP decried Clinton's Kosovo venture. We would benefit greatly from a bipartisan, pre-Vietnam War foreign policy approach. The Dems, “gullible, feckless and indecisive” on national security? I’m shocked. They’ve become the scions of Taft’s isolationism- just as Bush has assumed the mantle of Wilsonian interventionism. History is a strange thing. Bull Moose is correct in reminding us that the GOP decried Clinton’s Kosovo venture. We would benefit greatly from a bipartisan, pre-Vietnam War foreign policy approach.

]]> By: amba http://donklephant.com/2005/11/02/dems-walk-an-anti-war-tightrope/comment-page-1/#comment-3371 amba Thu, 03 Nov 2005 04:53:48 +0000 http://donklephant.com/?p=1247#comment-3371 Gee, I said <a href="http://ambivablog.typepad.com/ambivablog/2005/11/reiding_the_ome.html" rel="nofollow">just about the same thing</a> . . . less softly. Gee, I said just about the same thing . . . less softly.

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