Edwards Talks About His War Vote

[babylonsister]

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/29/edwards-talks-about-his-war-vote/

Edwards Talks About His War Vote

By Julie Bosman

KNOXVILLE, Iowa – John Edwards can frequently be heard on the campaign trail blasting President Bush’s management of the Iraq war.

He rarely volunteers that as a senator from North Carolina in 2002, he voted to authorize that war. And it is also rare for him to be confronted about that fact in public.

At a town hall forum here, the entire room was hushed as a man in the audience, emotion visible in his voice, stood and addressed Mr. Edwards.

“I would like to know,” he began. “Why did you vote for that war in Iraq? Did you actually feel that it was necessary? Did you actually feel that man had weapons that were an imminent threat to the United States?”

Mr. Edwards jumped in. “Let me answer you,” he said. “It’s a very good question and completely – can I just tell you? I’m always happy when somebody asks me that question, because I worry that people are thinking about it and don’t want to ask.”

He spoke for nearly four minutes, explaining that as a member of the Senate, and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he got direct information on what was happening inside Iraq. And he met with high-level members of the former Clinton administration, he said, who verified what he was hearing.

“Even at the time, with all that information, I had great reservations about George Bush,” he continued. “I didn’t trust him. I thought he had an agenda. And in the end, I decided to defer to him because he was the president. It was a mistake.”

And Mr. Edwards offered some other details about when he began to reconsider his vote: after the election in 2004, he said, when his wife, Elizabeth, was diagnosed with cancer.

While Mrs. Edwards was undergoing chemotherapy and sedated, Mr. Edwards would wait, he said. “I spent a lot of time, just sitting there by myself,” he said “I came to the decision, over a period of months, that I was dead wrong and I had to say so.”

So Mr. Edwards wrote an op-ed piece for The Washington Post, he said: “The first sentence was, ‘I was wrong.’ ”

He did not take any more questions.

[robbedvoter]

1. One of these days, he may even explain sponsoring the damn thing..just you wait!

Barring that, it's just more deception.
I was thinking of it yesterday, listening to Randi-s reruns - it was the show on Rove blaming the Democrats for starting the war...What a useful concoction!
How well will that idiotic story play in the echo chamber with an IWR sponsor (or even a voter).
So what if it's a lie and an absurd one? remember "Saddam did 9.11?"

[SoFlaJet]

5. yea we've yet to hear

"your girl" apologize for HER IWR vote-even worse though IMO and what turned ME off to her is her inexplicable support of the Kyl/LIEberman amendment.

[asdjrocky]

9. Him and 15 others....

No one ever mentions that.

[Mass]

13. Except Lieberman, who were the other Democrats?

Is any of them running for president?
Here is the list - Nobody that he needs to be proud to be linked with. A bunch of conservative Democrats including Zell Miller.

Sponsor: Sen Lieberman, Joseph I. (introduced 10/2/2002) Cosponsors (16)
Sen Allard, Wayne - 10/2/2002
Sen Baucus, Max - 10/7/2002
Sen Bayh, Evan - 10/2/2002
Sen Breaux, John B. - 10/9/2002
Sen Bunning, Jim - 10/4/2002
Sen Domenici, Pete V. - 10/2/2002
Sen Edwards, John - 10/3/2002
Sen Helms, Jesse - 10/2/2002
Sen Hutchinson, Tim - 10/2/2002
Sen Johnson, Tim - 10/7/2002
Sen Landrieu, Mary L. - 10/2/2002
Sen McCain, John - 10/2/2002
Sen McConnell, Mitch - 10/2/2002
Sen Miller, Zell - 10/2/2002
Sen Thurmond, Strom - 10/10/2002
Sen Warner, John - 10/2/2002

[panader0]

2. Admitting a mistake is a positive. I'm still undecided on a candidate.

[babylonsister]

3. Agreed, as is taking questions from the audience. nt

[sandnsea]

4. Did he lie to push through his agenda?

Did the Clintons lie? How the hell did this happen John? Do you know? Do you care? We're waiting.

[Larkspur]

6. Unlike Hillary, Edwards is mature enough to admit he was wrong about his IWR vote

JFK took the blame for the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion. Admitting a mistake and accepting the responsibility for it is an act of maturity and courage for a political leader. People don't have a problem when leaders admit their mistakes, as long as they don't make the same ones again.

Hillary has not learned from her mistake of voting for IWR which is why she won't apologize for it and why she voted for Kyle-Lieberman. In a way she is the Dem candidate most like Dubya. She is incapable of admitting mistakes and learning from them. And to compound it all, she's even using Bush's "hard work" slogan when she speaks to the public.

[cali]

7. Apologies, non-apologies; the blood on their hands

remains. I could care less about an apology, and I have no idea whether it's genuine or comes out of political expedience.

[Cha]

11. Great analysis, Larkspur.

So hillary's hard at work, eh? She needs to stay in the senate and workout her bushit karma.

[madeline_con]

12. EW

:puke:





Go John Edwards! :yourock:

[Cha]

8. Is John Edwards the only

one who's ever had an epiphany? It sure seems like a lot of people have never had the opportunity..they're stagnant in the status quo. Or are they just trying to write him off because he's not their candidate..and only their candidate can get away with shit.

[Mass]

10. Why did he co-sponsor it? That is the real question.

[BeyondGeography]

14. He brings Elizabeth's cancer into it?

Sorry. This guy is bad news.

[adnelson60087]

15. Who the hell are you to question what goes through a man's

mind as he's waiting for news about his sick wife?? Soul-searching does happen when you're facing the bleakest times of life. Forgive him for being HUMAN.

[BeyondGeography]

16. You are being manipulated

successfully, at that.

[adnelson60087]

17. Manipulated by humanity, if so, so be it.