Populist Reform of the Democratic Party

own party airc. That I think, is when he decided to leave that party. I also remember wondering why ANY DEMOCRAT could possibly give ANYTHING to Bush/Cheney who were clearly lying.

And I admired Chafee for his courage, because it took far more courage for a Republican to oppose his own rabidly war supporting party at that time than it would have for Democrats.

I think the Dems who voted for the AUMF did so for one of two reasons, or for both, one, they AGREED with Bush/Cheney's neocon Foreign Policies, OR they misread the Left. The looked at polls after 9/11 and saw the support for Bush and mistook it for political and personal support, when in fact it was for the country. And those who had political ambitions, the WH eg, thought, wrongly, that it would help them.

When that support for Bush from some on the Left began to crumble after they realized he was taking advantage of a great tragedy, those who voted for the war, many with Presidential aspirations, realize they had made a mistake.

Politically it sure was a mistake, as those who wanted to run for the WH as Dems realized pretty quickly when they found themselves faced with so much anger from Dem voters. Most rushed to apologize for it.

In Hillary's case I think she supported the neocons FP, which she proved as SOS. And she probably thought it would benefit her when she ran for president. Instead it probably lost her the presidency in 2008, once voters had a candidate who had opposed it.

This time she seems to realize what a disaster that vote was for her politically, and she has finally, way too late, apologized. It took a dozen years so it doesn't sound very convincing to me, just politically expedient. Not buying it at all.