I remember Bob Graham's rant on October 9, 2002, two days before the IWR vote.

[madfloridian]

I can't find the archived Palm Beach Post article, nor can I find the archived Miami Herald article that quoted him. But I posted about it way back in 2004. I may have before then, but I can't find it now.

He warned his fellow senators not to vote to go into Iraq. Graham is so mild mannered, so plodding in his manner, so cautious. They should have listened. He can't be the only one that knew the things he knew. He practically had a tantrum with them, was it two days before the vote? I think the vote was the 11th of October.

I do have the quotes and the link, and maybe something will turn up later. He was angry.

Here's the link, though dead now.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/epaper/2004/09/11/a6a_graham_0911.html

Here's the statement I saved.

Graham: "frankly, my friends. ... the blood's going to be on your hands."

..."On Oct. 9, 2002, Graham — the guy everyone thought of as quiet, mild-mannered, deliberate, conflict-averse — let loose on his Senate colleagues for going along with President Bush's war against Iraq.

"We are locking down on the principle that we have one evil, Saddam Hussein. He is an enormous, gargantuan force, and that's who we're going to go after," Graham said on the floor. "That, frankly, is an erroneous reading of the world. There are many evils out there, a number of which are substantially more competent, particularly in their ability to attack Americans here at home, than Iraq is likely to be in the foreseeable future."

He told his fellow senators that if they didn't recognize that going to war with Iraq without first taking out the actual terrorists would endanger Americans, "then, frankly, my friends — to use a blunt term — the blood's going to be on your hands."

It was a watershed moment. Gone was the meticulous thinker who would talk completely around and through a problem before answering a question about it...

I always respected Bob Graham. We met him several times. I have his autographed book "Intelligence Matters", which he autographed at function at Florida Southern College.

I never respected him more than when he took his stand on the war in Iraq.

[madfloridian]

1. I posted it here because many of our DFA went to his book-signing..

together and his speech there that night.