First, before I list out all the telling quotes that make John Edwards a better advocate for President Bush and the war in Iraq than most any person in congress, I need to give credit to the source.
The quotes listed below were assembled by Stephen F Hayes of The Weekly Standard. Because I feel strongly about NOT just cutting and pasting entire articles to Blogcritics or to my personal blog, Viewpointjournal.com, I decided to select just a few very telling quotes to whet your appetite and then link back to the Hayes article for you.
Lets take a look at what Mr. Hayes assembled for our home audience:
Edwards vs. Kerry
From the July 19, 2004 issue: Look who doesn't buy the presidential candidate's critique of the Iraq war.
by Stephen F. Hayes
07/19/2004, Volume 009, Issue 42"THE UNITED STATES of America should never go to war because it wants to," said John Kerry last weekend in a speech in Cloquet, Minn., accusing the Bush administration of bellicosity. "We should only go to war because we have to."
Did we go to war in Iraq just because we wanted to, or because Iraq posed a threat? Kerry's new running mate John Edwards addressed that question from the Senate floor on October 10, 2002, explaining his decision to vote to authorize war in Iraq.
"I'm here to speak in support of the resolution before us, which I cosponsored. I believe we must vote for this resolution not because we want war, but because the national security of our country requires action."
The Bush administration "misled America." Kerry is fond these days of claiming that the Bush administration "misled" the country to go to war in Iraq. Here he is during a June 25 appearance on Nightline with Ted Koppel. The administration "deeply misled the American people. I think the evidence is quite clear."
For Edwards, however, the evidence wasn't quite so clear. "So did I get misled? No. I didn't get misled," he said on Hardball with Chris Matthews on October 13, 2003, almost a year to the day after he voted to authorize the Iraq war and some six months after major combat ended. When Matthews followed up, asking Edwards if he got an "honest reading on the intelligence," the junior senator from North Carolina seemed to place much of the blame on the intelligence community.
EDWARDS: "And as you know, I serve on the Senate Intelligence Committee. So it wasn't just the Bush administration. I sat in meeting after meeting after meeting where we were told about the presence of weapons of mass destruction. There is clearly a disconnect between what we were told and what, in fact, we found there."
What's more, on February 24, 2002, Edwards was asked by CNN's John King about President Bush's labeling of Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an "axis of evil." His response: "You know, the most imminent, clear and present threat to our country is not the same from those three countries. I think Iraq is the most serious and imminent threat to our country. . . . And they do, in my judgment, present different threats. And I think Iraq and Saddam Hussein present the most serious and most imminent threat."
C'mon John, tell us what you REALLY think!
David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com
Article comments
1 - Jim Carruthers
So you found some quotes from a partisan source, and this makes good governance, how? [edited]
Oh, of course, it's not about government, it is about power and ruling. So yes, the thugs win. Who needs good government when they can get the iron fist in a depleted uranium glove. I can't wait to see the celebrations by the thugs. Enforced buggery in the streets no doubt.