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MoveOn.Org Withdraw-al-palooza
by Josh Gerstein
Wed, 11 Apr 2007 at 1:25 AM
updated Wed, 11 Apr 2007 at 1:36 AM
Listeners to MoveOn.org's virtual town hall meeting with Democratic presidential candidates last night were treated to an exercise in differentiating among politicians with very similar positions. The subject, of course, was the Iraq War.
I dislike these kinds of online events because the predetermined questions and ease of coaching tend to draw canned responses, but this one was not so bad. The sub-issue that prompted the most jockeying was the question of how Democrats should respond to President Bush's stated intent to veto the war-related supplemental spending bill that is likely to reach his desk soon with some timeline for withdrawal from Iraq.
Senator Clinton punted on that question, declaring, in a variant of the Mark Penn approach, that Democrats shouldn't announce a strategy for now. "I don't think we should tell President Bush what we will do if he vetoes this legislation….I don't want to foreclose any options right now. I am not prepared to throw in the towel," she said, suggesting there is some chance President Bush might choose not to veto.
Senator Obama of Illinois laid out the kind of plan Mrs. Clinton suggested candidates not get into. He said that after the expected veto, Congress should "ratchet up the pressure" on the president by sending him another spending bill that "contains some constraint on his actions." He said one way to do that would be to send the president short-term bills, with only enough money for three or four months.
A former senator, John Edwards, who spoke before the other contenders, predicted that many of his former colleagues would "be tempted to cry uncle" in the face of the likely veto. "This is not the time for political calculation. This is the time for political courage. This is not a game of chicken. This is not about making friends or keeping Joe Lieberman happy…. This is about life and death," Mr. Edwards said. That Lieberman comment was a bit puzzling, since if the Connecticut senator were to caucus with Republicans, Democrats would lose control of the Senate and lose much of their control over the content of war-related legislation.
Both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama took shots at Senator McCain, not invoking him by name but clearly criticizing his statements that conditions are improving in Iraq.
Rounding out the field, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio called for American-funded "reparations" for Iraqis, Governor Richardson of New Mexico said he was the best candidate but no "rock star", and Senator Biden posed the question about Iraq few in the pro-pullout contingent seem interested in discussing, "Then what?"
For those singlemindedly focused on immediate withdrawal, Senator Dodd of Connecticut probably took the cake. "I believe we ought to begin redeploying our troops this evening," he said.
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