This quote from retiring South Carolina Democratic Senator Fritz Hollings caught my eye:
"Howard Dean is right. Saddam wasn't causing anybody any problem. You have some little smart-aleck announcer on television asking, 'Do you think we're better off with Saddam gone?' What else is gone? We have 456 dead; 11,000 maimed for life, and I don't think it was worth it. I had intended to vote against that resolution (giving Bush the authority to wage war against Iraq), but Rummy and Condi Rice and Cheney said you can't wait until the smoking gun is a mushroom cloud. I thought they had some intelligence, that they knew something."
Sen. Fritz Hollings, South Carolina's senior senator, defending Howard Dean's insistence that the United States isn't any safer after the ouster of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein
This reminded me of something that very much impressed me after the Gulf War of 1991. Hollings had voted for a delay in invading Iraq. But after the immediate authorization for war passed, he joined with most other Senators in supporting the war resolution as a show of national solidarity and support for the troops. The debate over the Gulf War resolution was one of the most high-minded moments that Congress ever had.
George H.W. Bush was a key reason why that kind of bipartisanship has not been seen since. I remember a news story about Bush appearing with Hollings at a public appearance after the war, and some in the crowd booed Hollings because he didn't initially support the resolution for immediate war. It made a big impression on me, because there was no indication in the article that Bush had criticized the hecklers or supported Hollings on the issue at the event.
And I thought, here we just had an incredibile demonstration of bipartisanship for the Gulf War, and both parties in Congress had really tried to respect each other's views and treat the war issue with the seriousness it deserved. And now here is Bush going along with trying to make the Gulf War into a cheap partisan issue.
War the Bush way. I sure hope we never see another one.
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