Since today’s the day that all three of the presidential candidates will be on the Hill to grill Gen. David H. Petraeus about how the Iraq war is going, let’s take a moment to check the record – the whole record – on how Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton voted on the war before they were running for president.
They both have their favorite debate lines. Every chance he gets, Obama reminds his audiences that, unlike Clinton, he spoke out against the war when it wasn’t popular to do so.
But he wasn’t in the U.S. Senate yet at the time, so Clinton likes to point out that for his first two years in the Senate, he kept voting to fund the war and didn’t push very hard to end it. “When he had a chance to act on his speech, he chose silence instead,” she said at the George Washington University last month.
It’s true, as far as it goes. Obama did vote to fund the war throughout 2005 and 2006 – and even voted against a timetable to withdraw U.S. troops.
And so did Clinton.
It’s not a lot of fun for the Democrats to remember now, but the fact is, everyone voted to keep the money flowing back then. No one wanted to just shut off the funds. It wasn’t until the Democrats were in the majority, and Clinton and Obama were running for the White House, that they started voting for withdrawal timetables and against funding bills that didn’t have them.
Let’s roll the tape:
May 2005 – The Senate approved a supplemental spending bill with $82 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama and Clinton voted yes. And, by the way, so did everyone else. It was a unanimous vote.
December 2005 – The annual defense appropriations bill included another $50 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama and Clinton voted yes – again, along with everyone else.
June 2006 – Another supplemental spending bill, this time with $70.4 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan as well as $19.8 billion for hurricane relief. Obama and Clinton voted yes. This time, there was one no vote – Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. (He was mad because the bill limited discretionary spending.)
And what about withdrawing troops? Neither Obama nor Clinton were on board in June 2006 when John Kerry of Massachusetts, the 2004 Democratic nominee, tried to require Bush to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq within a year. He got only 13 votes for his amendment, and both Clinton and Obama opposed it.
There’s a subtle difference, though. Obama, who now says he can get most of the troops out of Iraq in 16 months, gave a floor speech about the Kerry amendment that might seem a bit awkward today. “A hard and fast, arbitrary deadline for withdrawal offers our commanders in the field, and the diplomats in the region, insufficient flexibility” to get out of Iraq responsibly, Obama said back then.
Clinton's speech that day was more nuanced. Her comments – "I may disagree with those who call for a date certain for withdrawal, but I do not doubt their patriotism" – are probably harder to quote back at her today.
![[RSS]](http://67.192.49.194/templates/images/rss_icon.gif){kind=icon}
Comments
Guys- anyone interested in politics/presidential race should definitely check out http://www.savagepolitics.com
Their articles are like nothing I have read in any of the current media outlets. It is brilliant writing plus it offers a great community in which to discuss. The editor actually takes time to answer and the political humor section is awesome!!!
Check out the article “We are the puppets”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! http://savagepolitics.com/?p=271
Posted by: elsylee
| April 8, 2008 12:26 PM
Post A Comment