Thanks For Nothing

E.J. Dionne says:

[Kerry] needs a much better defense of that Iraq vote of his. It really isn’t so hard. When Bush went to Congress in the fall of 2002 for authorization to go to war in Iraq, he did so after saying he was going to the United Nations to seek international support for a war against Saddam Hussein.

Yes, the congressional resolution empowering Bush to wage war was far broader than it should have been. But when push came to shove, Kerry decided to take the chance in voting “yes” to strengthen Bush’s hand in negotiating with the United Nations. That seeking U.N. support was never really a Bush priority and that he botched the postwar planning is the president’s problem, not Kerry’s. Why can’t Kerry keep it that simple?

Does anyone in their right mind think that is simple? Has E.J. ever heard what Kerry really said? Jesus, by comparison he sounds like Forest Gump compared to that wonky blather:

Yes, I would have voted for the authority. I believe it was the right authority for a president to have, but I would have used that authority, as I have said throughout this campaign, effectively. I would have done this very differently from the way President Bush has.

Now maybe there is a simpler way to say this but it sure isn’t Dionne’s meandering bullshit.

Look, this is a difficult issue for Kerry, there’s no doubt about it. I was very disappointed in him for voting for the resolution because this was entirely predictable. From a tactical standpoint, it was never clear to me why these guys thought that they could win a presidential election by supporting Bush on Iraq. If the war was perceived as a success, Bush would probably be unbeatable. It is because the war has been such a strategic disaster that he’s as vulnerable as he is. This, to me, was the only scenario in which we could win in ’04 and therefore, it was always the smart move politically (much less morally) for Democrats to oppose that goddamned war — and hammer on terrorism, the real threat, hard.

At the end of the day, the Bush people might want to rethink bringing this up everyday. Iraq is Bush’s albatross, not Kerry’s, no matter how hard they try to hang it around his neck. That big old elephant sitting over in the corner is holding a sign that says “where are the WMD?”

As for the much desired “bumper sticker explanation” that even Dionne can understand, The Howler suggests this:

I voted to give President Bush the authority. Then President Bush f*cked it up

Works for me.