"Let me tell you what happened," Elizabeth Edwards answers simply. The vote of Kerry and her husband, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, to authorize the use of force in Iraq was like hammer, she explains, to pressure then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein -- 'like pulling out a switch, if you're a mom' -- a threat of force they'd hoped that the United States would never have to use. And at the time, Edwards and Kerry insisted that if there were an invasion by U.S. forces, there must be a plan for peace in the aftermath.
But after the Iraq invasion, there was no plan from the president, Edwards insisted. Security in Iraq was deteriorating, and something had to be done to ensure soldiers' safety. So when Bush sought $87 billion more for the war effort, Edwards and Kerry refused to give him "a blank check."
She snatches an index card off a nearby table and holds it up to signify Kerry's and Edwards' vote. "It was like this: 'Give me a plan, and I'll give you the vote,'" she says, waving the card behind her head.
But the president "would not do it, he would not give them a plan," Edwards says. "... They could not in good conscience
."
http://www.postgazette.com/pg/04266/383299.stm
Campaign Snapshot: Elizabeth Edwards / Dems' '2nd lady' effective in Jeannette
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
By Maeve Reston, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette