Reply #87: Thanks, but

[TayTay]

I honest-to-gawd think that Mr. Kerry voted for that, at the time, because I think he believed that the Constitution already gave the President the authority to go to war. (Imminent threat.) I really do. It makes good, wonky sense. (Oh double and triple sigh! I think Mr. Kerry believed he was doing the right thing, based on the info at hand. He can be maddeningly cautious sometimes and will pause to make sure the i's are dotted and the t's crossed.) That was what was worse about the vote. In a lot of ways it was like arguing with the lefty freepers, only this was the wonk version. (The Spock argument: It was technically the right thing to do as the legality of this issue clearly favors the executive epxression of power and oh, gag me. Sigh! I wanted a passionate vote. I got traffic school.)

I think this is why the taller Senator from MA was able to make so many challenges to the actual way the war was planned for and executed. I don't believe he thought at the time (or really thinks now) that he really authorized the war. He did not. He authorized the UN inspectors and so forth, but he never voted to give Bush any power that the Constitution didn't already give him. (Again, that is a cold argument. Others, obviously saw it differently and saw that vote as a vote for war. It never was. Neither was it a vote against war and that also bothered me.)