Joe Biden Had it Right

On the war, Joe Biden had a far more progressive approach than his new running mate, Barack Obama.  We would do well to remember the words of Sen. Biden from just little over a year ago in an interview with the late Tim Russert on Meet the Press.  Pay special attention to his reasons for going to war, and for not pulling out suddenly.  He's dead on.  He totally exonerates Bush from any wrong doing in parts of this interview, and explains the president's reasons almost better than the president himself. 

It's quite clear from reading this that the Democrats changed their position on the war from support to opposition, for political reasons only.  Biden supported this war up until he began campaigning in Iowa in 2007.  As Tim Russert accurately points out, that's when he suddenly decided the whole thing had been a big mistake.  

He and most other Democrats rightly supported the war at the time, because it's what any rational, non-suicidal American would have supported.  And most Americans did support it.  They turned against the war when the war started going poorly because they realized it had become a political issue they could use against George Bush. 

MR. RUSSERT:  So you will not vote to cut off funding for the war, period.

SEN. BIDEN:  As of today, I would not vote to cut off all funding if the funding cutoff said there can be absolutely not a single solitary American force left anywhere within Iraq within a time certain.

MR. RUSSERT:  I want to go back to 2002, because it’s important as to what people were saying then and what the American people were hearing. 

Here’s Joe Biden on Saddam Hussein: 

• “He’s a long term threat and a short term threat to our national security.”
• “We have no choice but to eliminate the threat.  This is a guy who is an extreme danger to the world.”
• “He must be dislodged from his weapons or dislodged from power.” You were emphatic about that.

SEN. BIDEN:  That’s right, and I was correct about that.  He must be, in fact—and remember the weapons we were talking about.  What I also said on your show at the time was that I did not think he had weaponized his material, but he did have [the material].  When the inspectors left after Saddam kicked them out, there was a cataloging at the United Nations saying he had X tons of X and they listed the

Years from now, if we ever suffer from another tragic terrorist attack in this country, I can hear myself blaming Democrats and their lack of vigor when it comes to fighting terror, as contributing to it.  I will then be asked to prove my assertions that Democrats were weak on terror.  Maybe I should start a whole section on how Dems are weak on terror.

This article from the July 23, 2008 edition of Newsweek details how Dems said "no" to Attorney General Michael Muskasey's plea to enact new legislation to govern how federal courts handle legal challenges from detainees at Gitmo. 

Raising the prospect that Guantánamo Bay inmates might be unleashed onto the streets of American cities, Bush-appointed Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Wednesday there is an "urgent" need for Congress to enact a new law governing how federal courts handle legal challenges from detainees at the U.S. prison camp in Cuba.