Fear Factor

Plame and Wilson
In all the buildup to the Iraqnam quagmire, I believe that there is a subtext regarding Democrat support of the war that is not spoken of enough.As Fitzgerald winds up the Plame investigation,the Democrat line is this: the case is extremely important because it emphasizes the lies and mistakes of Bush's administration that led us to war. To which Right Wingers reply - what about all the Democrats that supported the war like Clinton and Kerry ?

Most of the Dems who voted to give the President authority to go to war were and are suffering from a kind of Fear Factor, strongly developed since 9-11. Incumbent Democrats fear reprisals in the way of public opinion if they don't seem totally against even the suggestion of terrorism. This is similar to the means used to pass the "Patriot Act". Though most legislators didn't have the chance to read it, they felt because of the public disposition at the time (Fear Terrorists!!) they had little choice but to vote yes.

This is how government works. A congress person will tack on his/her issue to a budget bill that will surely pass.Bush threatened to veto a recent war spending bill because it contained an anti-torture provision. It was an idle threat because Bush didn't dare have the first bill he vetoed be money for our soldiers.

I'm not trying to excuse Democrats that were naive about Bush's motivations. I much prefer an official like Feingold or Kucinich who actually does what he says. I'm just suggesting that we probably should not expect too many "Profiles in Courage" votes where the incumbents buck the climate of public opinion.Poll numbers indicate that the majority of Americans are waking up to the incompetence in managing this worse than useless, counter productive war, so perhaps this situation will be settled in the voting booth in 2006 and 2008.