The Politico has conducted
an excellent, important survey of all 100 Senators (PDF) asking them the following four questions on Iraq:
- Did you vote to authorize the use of force against Iraq in 2002?. Sixty-two were "yes" votes, twenty were "no" votes, and eighteen members were not in either the House or the Senate at the time The eighteen members who were new to Congress since 2002 are split evenly between Republicans and Democrats.
- If you voted yes, do you regret your vote? Of the sixty-two who voted yes, fourteen now say they regret their vote, ten offered no comment, and thirty-eight said they did not regret their vote. The Democrats who did not regret their "yes" vote are Schumer, both Nelsons, and Hillary Clinton. This honestly makes me sad to be a Democrat from New York--I thought us Upstaters were supposed to be the conservative ones. Four Democrats also gave no comment: Cantwell (WA), Dorgan (ND), Lincoln (AR), and Reid (NV). Lieberman, of course, regrets nothing, ever.
- Do you support the "surge?" Fifty-eight said no, thirty-six said yes, four gave no comment, and two were undecided. In the "yes" column, I am including the five Republicans who, in an attempt to have it both ways, wrote "conditionally." All five of them are real winguts anyway without a moderate bone in their bodies: Chambliss (SC), Coburn (OK), Grassley (IA), Roberts (KS) and Craig (WY). McCain, of course, wrote "yes," no matter how much his waffling comments might indicate otherwise.
- Do you support a timetable / fixed date for withdrawal? Sixty-seven said no, twenty-three said either yes or "immediate," eight gave no comment, and two were undecided. The only Repblicans who didn't say "no" were Alexander (TN) and Sununu (NH) who both said "no comment." An unfortunately wide range of Democrats--nineteen plus Lieberman, including some of the more progressive members of the caucus--said either "no," "undecided," or "no comment."
This is quite a survey. It means, among other things, that there are still at least forty-seven votes to authorize the war in Iraq, even now (the thirty-eight who don't regret their vote plus the nine Republicans new to Congress). It also means we are still nowhere near a majority for a timetable, with sixty-seven members opposing the idea (and, as I noted, many of the Democrats who oppose a timetable are from the progressive end of the spectrum).
The biggest news, however, is that Hillary Clinton has just stated, flat-out, that she does not regret her war vote. At the same time, she is still trying to campaign as though she is against the war,
claiming that she wouldn't have started it, and that she would end it. Basically, it is
the same thing we saw from Lieberman during the general election against Lamont: an absolute hawk trying to appear anti-war in order to pick up Democratic votes. Since most established news media outlets have basically become stenographers for campaign press releases, it might be very difficult to combat campaign rhetoric from someone who claims to be anti-war, but who doesn't regret her vote to authorize the war in Iraq. Clearly, it was difficult in Connecticut, at least in the general election. Low information voters just won't know the difference.
You can read the Politico article on the survey here.
