Reply #76: Richardson made statements AFTER the invasion in favor of it [View All]

[karynnj]

He wasn't in Congress - so he didn't have to vote. Senator Kerry spoke out against going to war if it was not a last resort several times - the two easiest to find were a speech at Georgetown where he spoke of not rushing to war given on January 23, 2003 and a December 2002 MTP. The Georgetown speech resulted in a David Frum, Bush speech writer, rant in National Review whining that they could never go to war slow enough to please Kerry, France and Germany. Kerry still had the same position after the invasion when the war was favored by 70% plus of the people.

Kerry risked having a political career to stand up to Nixon on the Vietnam War.

Kerry also fought Bush and Reagan on the illegal funding of the Contras and the covert war in Latin America. ( Richardson backed legally funding them - even though they were RW thugs - whose was afraid of peace here. http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=06&year=2008&base_name=assignment_desk_bill_richardso)

Kerry stood against EVERYONE in the power elite to investigate BCCI. Kerry has a record that he can be very proud of.

Find me three things where Richardson took positions anywhere near as strong. In addition Richardson was no profile in courage on the Wen ho Lee case. The fact is that Kerry has 24 years of FP experience - far more that Richardson - and they extent to the present. (You might want to look at what each did in proposing an exit to Iraq - Kerry's is pretty much everyone's now - Richardson's was an attempt to pander)

I actually hope Kerry stays in the Senate. He then preserves his independence and he is poised to be a very power Senator, who will likely be the author of landmark legislation - and it won't hurt that he has to friends in OBama and Biden. Kerry has a role model he can follow on this - Kennedy and he is a Fifth term Senator with the seniority needed to get things done. As one who has watched committee hearings - he has the respect of his peers. In my opinion, Kennedy has accomplished more real change as Senator than any Democratic President in the last 3 decades.