Hypocrisy Defined

If you've ever wondered how important elections are, here's proof for you. Brit Hume of Fox News recounts this little gem from our would-be Commander-in-Chief, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. Speaking at a holiday party for those who worked on his 2004 campain, Kerry says that if the Democrats retake the House of Representatives in 2006, there's a "solid case" for impeaching President Bush for misleading the country about pre-war intelligence on Iraq. Says Kerry: "If we win back the house, I think we have a pretty solid case to bring articles of impeachment against this president."

Now, remember that this is the same John Kerry who voted for the war in Iraq, and who also "voted for the funding" for the war effort (that is, before he voted against it.) Senator Kerry is on record during the run-up to the War in 2003 and during the presidential campaign in 2004 as stating clearly that he would have voted for the Congressional resolution that authorized the war again if he had to "do it over". Speaking at a campaign rally in Arizona in August, 2004 he said “even knowing what we now know,” he would still have cast his vote in the Senate to authorize the Bush administration to invade Iraq. “I would have voted for the authority,” said Kerry. “I believe it was the right authority for the president to have.” The Congressional resolution that Kerry voted for was unambiguous about the nature of the threat facing the United States:

“(Iraq is) a continuing threat to the national security of the United States and international peace and security in the Persian Gulf region” because it was “continuing to possess and develop a significant chemical and biological weapons capability, actively seeking a nuclear weapons capability, and supporting and harboring terrorist organizations...(with the risk that) the current Iraqi regime will either employ those weapons to launch a surprise attack against the United States or its Armed Forces or provide them to international terrorists who would do so, and the extreme magnitude of harm that would result to the United States and its citizens from such an attack, combine to justify action by the United States to defend itself.”

We know, of course, that the resolution quoted above was built upon the same intelligence that President Bush used to make the decision to depose the Hussein regime, and which was consistent with intelligence provided by the French, German, British and Russian intelligence services. So, the same data that was informing the world's foremost intelligence agencies (including the CIA) was also the basis upon which the President and the US Senate made their decisions concerning the war in Iraq. The unanimity of opinion cannot be refuted now, even by the best of the Democratic revisionists.

This makes Kerry's claims about the President misleading the American people about the intelligence on Iraq not just hypocritical, but an example of politics triumphing (once again) over principle. If Kerry saw largely the same intelligence as the President, supported the decision to go to war in Iraq at the time, and voted accordingly -- it seems logical that he bears the same responsibility as President Bush does. If this is an impeachable offense in the Senator's view, perhaps he should tender his resignation. I cannot think of a better gesture to show that the Democratic Party is willing to put its "money where its mouth is."