...in 5, 4, 3, 2...
Well, I kid a bit. The news today, covered first in The Olympian and the The Columbian, of Brian Baird's shift on Iraq policy is a doozy. But, stillwell over at NPI isn't quite freaking out about it...though others may well do so.
Long story short, Baird has been to Iraq five times after voting against the war in 2002. He now says the surge is having a positive effect and he won't support a hasty troop drawdown given the potential consequences. This is not what anti-war progressives want to hear.
Obviously, any Democrat in Congress saying essentially the same thing as a recent significant op-ed from some Iraq war critics in the New York Times is going to grab some attention.
Jim Geraghty and Captain's Quarters covered it. So to did David Postman and the AP. They'll be more where that came from.
Interesting story to say the least. Clearly, Baird is no Nancy Boyda.
Posted by Eric Earling at August 17, 2007 06:01 PM | Email ThisHe still hasn't figured how badly the dems kicked his ilk to the curb the day after the last election.
Posted by: Hinton on August 17, 2007 07:39 PM
Yes, there is legitimate question as to the least disastrous way to fix this disaster. But I -- and everyone I know, Democrat or Republican -- am much happier to hear the occasional good news from Iraq than the mostly bad news. I've never heard a Democrat say (or suspected they thought) that they want the war to go badly so they can reach some greater goal -- as opposed to, say, the cynics on this board who advocate deliberately starving the US public schools so society gives up on them.
Posted by: Bruce on August 18, 2007 09:18 AMReally? Then you didn't recently hear one of your leaders say good news from Iraq 'would be a problem for us.'
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Monday that a strongly positive report on progress on Iraq by Army Gen. David Petraeus likely would split Democrats in the House and impede his party's efforts to press for a timetable to end the war.Clyburn noted that Petraeus carries significant weight among the 47 members of the Blue Dog caucus in the House, a group of moderate to conservative Democrats. Without their support, he said, Democratic leaders would find it virtually impossible to pass legislation setting a timetable for withdrawal.
"I think there would be enough support in that group to want to stay the course and if the Republicans were to stay united as they have been, then it would be a problem for us,"Clyburn said.
So which is it, Bruce? Good news from Iraq so we can stay and win this war ... but harm the overall political goals of the Democrats? Or, bad news from Iraq so the Democrats can have their precious timetable to withdraw with our tails between our legs?
If you don't think good news from Iraq is bad news for the Democrats and their political agenda, you haven't been paying attention to what they've been saying and doing. Today's Ds have banked their entire foreign policy agenda (as it were) on failure in Iraq, pinning all the blame on Bush and riding that blame to the White House in 2008. At least be honest about it and admit it.
Now that Baird - a very reliable and very liberal member of Congress - has come out and said this, you watch how your buddies on the hard left eat him alive.
Posted by: jimg on August 18, 2007 10:21 AMLie-ber-alls absolutely despise people that think for themselves.
Posted by: PBJ on August 18, 2007 12:40 PMPardon me, Bruce. I certainly don't read every comment here but I don't recall a single person advocating "deliberately starving the US public schools so society gives up on them." If you can find an example, fine. Otherwise I will have to believe you are freaking out. I think it is more likely that you are referring to support of school vouchers, otherwise known as school choice.
And no I don't believe Democrats want a victory in Iraq. The want a pullout before the 2008 election that can be blamed on Republicans. When the Senate Majority Leader says that we have lost the war what other conclusion can be drawn?
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on August 18, 2007 05:37 PMHowsomeever -- President Bush and Joe Leiberman in the recent past have made exactly the same points Baird did, yet the zero spun them as devisive, ineffective, unrealistic and unworkable (where they reported on them at all).
For Baird, they reported his comments straight, without all the "and yet critics say . . ."
Posted by: starboardhelm on August 18, 2007 05:43 PMIn the 92 congressional elections since the 3rd was first anchored in Southwest Washington (in 1914), only 19 terms have gone to Republicans; 25 to the Democrats. More importantly 15 of those GOP victories went to conservative Hoquiam newspaper publishers Albert Johnson and Russell V. Mack. Johnson served a district record nine terms from 1914 � 1933 first winning election from the 2nd District in 1912. (Mack died in office in 1960.)
But since the Roosevelt realignment of 1932, only 10 terms have swung to the GOP (including Mack�s nearly seven terms). Hoquiam lawyer and mayor Martin Smith rode the New Deal into office and served six terms. Pacific County businessman and former state legislator Fred Norman exchanged terms with ultra-liberal logger Charlie Savage in the mid-1940s during the anti-Communist witchhunts of that era. Savage is better remembered in Olympia for a colorful career in the Legislature from 1939 to the 1970s.
After Norman�s untimely death in 1947, Mack picked up the Cold War mantle and served until his death in early 1960 when he was succeeded by the hard-driving Julia Butler Hansen from Cathlamet, first women Speaker Pro Tem of the state house, whose reputation for blunt talk helped her to rise to chairmanship of key subcommittees and Democratic caucus influence throughout the 1960s and early 70s.
Since Hansen was first elected, the Democrats have dominated the 3rd Congressional seat. She was succeeded by Clark County Auditor Don Bonker, who also served a record nine-terms. Even the supposed 1994 Republican re-alignment saw GOP victories only twice for Linda Smith. Even her single re-election was so narrow that her opponent actually traveled to DC for freshmen orientation until the final results �unseated� him. That congressional would-be was Brian Baird who has won ever since.
The only two Democrats to be defeated in their quest for re-election to the 3rd district seat were both labeled extreme liberals. The first was Savage in 1946, a year Republicans swept into power following World War II. The second was Jolene Unsoeld who served a single term before being defeated by populist conservative state legislator Linda Smith in 1994. Baird seems to be tacking to the right to better reflect his district. Perhaps the much ballyhooed Republican re-alignment will occur when either the bluest of blue legislative districts in southwest Washington, the Cowlitz-Pacific Counties� 19th or Vancouver�s 49th, start electing more Republicans.
But lacking the end of a popular war, that�s not happening anytime soon!
(Interesting note � both Smiths and Bonker left the House to seek a seat in the US Senate. All three failed.)
In the 92 congressional elections since the 3rd was first anchored in Southwest Washington (in 1914), only 19 terms have gone to Republicans; 25 to the Democrats. More importantly 15 of those GOP victories went to conservative Hoquiam newspaper publishers Albert Johnson and Russell V. Mack. Johnson served a district record nine terms from 1914 � 1933 first winning election from the 2nd District in 1912. (Mack died in office in 1960.)
But since the Roosevelt realignment of 1932, only 10 terms have swung to the GOP (including Mack�s nearly seven terms). Hoquiam lawyer and mayor Martin Smith rode the New Deal into office and served six terms. Pacific County businessman and former state legislator Fred Norman exchanged terms with ultra-liberal logger Charlie Savage in the mid-1940s during the anti-Communist witchhunts of that era. Savage is better remembered in Olympia for a colorful career in the Legislature from 1939 to the 1970s.
After Norman�s untimely death in 1947, Mack picked up the Cold War mantle and served until his death in early 1960 when he was succeeded by the hard-driving Julia Butler Hansen from Cathlamet, first women Speaker Pro Tem of the state house, whose reputation for blunt talk helped her to rise to chairmanship of key subcommittees and Democratic caucus influence throughout the 1960s and early 70s.
Since Hansen was first elected, the Democrats have dominated the 3rd Congressional seat. She was succeeded by Clark County Auditor Don Bonker, who also served a record nine-terms. Even the supposed 1994 Republican re-alignment saw GOP victories only twice for Linda Smith. Even her single re-election was so narrow that her opponent actually traveled to DC for freshmen orientation until the final results �unseated� him. That congressional would-be was Brian Baird who has won ever since.
The only two Democrats to be defeated in their quest for re-election to the 3rd district seat were both labeled extreme liberals. The first was Savage in 1946, a year Republicans swept into power following World War II. The second was Jolene Unsoeld who served a single term before being defeated by populist conservative state legislator Linda Smith in 1994. Baird seems to be tacking to the right to better reflect his district. Perhaps the much ballyhooed Republican re-alignment will occur when either the bluest of blue legislative districts in southwest Washington, the Cowlitz-Pacific Counties� 19th or Vancouver�s 49th, start electing more Republicans.
But lacking the end of a popular war, that�s not happening anytime soon!
(Interesting note � both Smiths and Bonker left the House to seek a seat in the US Senate. All three failed.)