I continue to be utterly mystified.

[merrily]

321. Somewhat. But, my personal opinion is that Dem Senators who had Presidential ambitions

thought their personal political ambition demanded a war vote. That is what I cannot get around. "If I vote against, I may never be President."

So, what they did was fiddle with wording to try to provide themselves with an alibi if the vote hit the fan. I remember watching one of the talking head shows not long after the invasion, when Biden was railing against Bushco for the war. The host pointed out that Democrats, including Biden, had voted for it. Biden immediately went into faux outrage mode, saying that they had worded it very carefully, but bad ole Bush had not abided by the careful wording.

Trouble was, most of them are lawyers and have lawyers. The wording authorized what Bush did and they knew it. (If they didn't know it, what the hell are they doing in Congress?) If they thought Bush had violated their careful wording, they should have been screaming as Bush was sending troops to Iraq, and not only after media and others started throwing their votes back in their faces when they railed against Bush.

In any event, I heard the "careful wording" bs a couple more times back then, then they dropped it because it was so frickin' easy to make them look ridiculous for claiming that.

If I thought they really believed in this vote, even out of neocon idea, I could abide it a bit more than thinking they did it to hedge their bets for a Presidential run. One is bad, but sincere judgment. I've been there. We all have. The other is incredibly cynical, callous and selfish, regardless of human cost. I've never been there.