JUST SAY IT, HILLARY

Hillary Clinton is a very smart woman, and her husband remains one of the canniest political analysts ever. So I have to believe they will soon dump the strategy of refusing to admit her Iraq war vote was a mistake. All over New Hampshire this weekend she was asked to renounce her vote, but she wouldn’t do it. If she had, it would be a one day story before the press moved on to something else. Instead, the refusal is itself becoming a big part of the campaign story, and that ain’t good.

Check out the headlines from her weekend in New Hampshire:

In the Washington Post: “Clinton Parries Iraq Question in N.H.”
The New York Times: “In New Hampshire, Clinton Owns Up to her Vote on Iraq” (and today’s front page NYT: “For Clinton and Obama, Different Tests on Iraq”). And here on HuffingtonPost: “Clinton Dodges Iraq Questions, says Bush Incompetent”
“Clinton Cheered in NH: Some war Foes Skeptical” on Politico.com.

NBC Nightly News described it as “The question that won’t go away.” And Terry McAuliffe, former DNC chairman and Hillary Clinton adviser, on CNN’s Late Edition Sunday, spent about half the interview defending her decision not to acknowledge her vote was a mistake.

Saturday a voter named Roger Tilton from Nashua New Hampshire challenged her this way:

"I want to know if right here, right now, once and for all and without nuance, you can say that war authorization was a mistake," Tilton said. "I, and I think a lot of other primary voters -- until we hear you say it, we're not going to hear all the other great things you are saying."

Her answer? “Well, I have said, and I will repeat it, that knowing what I know now, I would never have voted for it.”

Now the question is why? Why allow yourself to be dogged by this question, one that is easy to handle and could then be put aside. In a front page NY Times story today Clinton adviser Mark Penn suggests that the term “mistake” should be reserved for Bush. Okay, then find a different way to say it. It's not going away.

Over at Talking Points Memo, they’ve posted Hillary’s full pre-war vote speech. As you’ll see, she did not vote for a pre-emptive war, as she has pointed out frequently while campaigning. Of course you’ll also see that she was a hawk, and you’ll see that in the final paragraphs, her thinking bears a certain resemblence to Bush/Cheney’s when it comes to conflating 9/11 with Saddam:

"And finally, on another personal note, I come to this decision from the perspective of a Senator from New York who has seen all too closely the consequences of last year's terrible attacks on our nation. In balancing the risks of action versus inaction, I think New Yorkers who have gone through the fires of hell may be more attuned to the risk of not acting. I know that I am."
--SENATE SPEECH Oct 10 2002


It seems the Clinton strategists are thinking ahead to the general election, calculating she has be more centrist to win independents. (Why they feel that way I don’t know, since Independents voted Democratic and anti-war in 2006). But even with her big lead in name recognition and money, it’s difficult to see how she, or any Democrat, is going to get the nomination without being a full throated, anti-war candidate. Senator Clinton is being pulled left by Edwards and Obama (and the other anti-war candidates) and maybe she thinks she’s gone far enough.

She hasn’t. Democrats who’ve been anti-war since day one remember that when Hillary was busy earning her national security cred as a tough, hawkish freshman Democrat, she was pretty sure of her facts about Iraq.

Here’s what she told Code Pink in March 2003, before the war:

"There is a very easy way to prevent anyone from being put into harm's way, that is for Saddam Hussein to disarm". "I have absolutely no belief he will. I have to say this is something I've followed for more than a decade."

That was then. Now, to say, “I have taken responsibility for my vote. The mistake was by this President who misled the Congress,” isn’t going to cut it.

Yes, Bush did lie and mislead Congress. But 23 of your Senate colleagues were not taken in by the deceptions; they voted against the war. What does it mean to “take responsibility” for your vote, anyway? You were misled, and it was a mistake to trust the President to use war as a last resort. Oh, and you're sorry.

Just say it, will ya?


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