Gerard Baker, writing
today at Times Online:
[T]he “Bush lied to us” whine is much worse when it comes from the
mouths of those who insisted only three years ago, in voting for the war, that
they were taking a heroic stand in defense of national security. Half the Democratic members of the Senate —
oddly enough, including all those with serious presidential aspirations — John
Kerry, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Joe
Biden — voted for the war in 2002.The awful truth about many of these people is that their cynicism in
distancing themselves from their support for the war is only matched by their
cynicism in originally supporting it. . .These were the ambitious Democrats who thought they had learnt the lessons
of 1991. Then you may recall, the vast majority of the party’s senators voted
against the first Iraq war. . . . So, confronted with a similar
choice in October 2002, they did not want to be on the losing side again. If it was another cakewalk, and they had voted
against it, the damage to their credibility as presidential candidates would be
irreparable. . .But it wasn’t a cakewalk. And now
they’re trapped. So they resort to the
defense of the coward throughout history: “He made me do it.”
With the possible exception of Joe Lieberman, none of the current
Democratic leaders will likely appear in any updated version of John
F. Kennedy’s book.