It’s difficult to imagine what Hillary Clinton was thinking when
she voted for the Kyl-Lieberman amendment designating Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group. For some reason, I'm reminded of Silvio on The Sopranos doing his impression of Michael Corleone: Just
when I thought that I was out, they pull me back in.
Senator Clinton spent a good portion of the beginning of her presidential campaign not apologizing for her vote authorizing President Bush to go to war in Iraq. Instead of apologizing, she justified her decision as one that would have been correct had President Bush been a man of his word, not a warmonger with an itch that only an invasion of Iraq could scratch. It seemed odd that Senator Clinton opted for verbal gymnastics rather than a simple apology, especially in light of John Edwards’s eloquent and heartfelt apology for the same erroneous vote.
Eventually, though, I think most of us accepted Senator Clinton's rationale that, in casting her vote, she didn’t factor in President Bush’s equivocating, warmongering nature, even if we knew that she was empowering a madman and validating the claims and policies of an ideologue, not a clear-thinking commander-in-chief. When asked if, knowing what she knows now, her vote would be different, Senator Clinton has said, “...there are no do-overs in life." Last week, though, almost like Superman making Earth reverse course to go back in time, Senators Joe Lieberman and Jon Kyl handed Senator Clinton her "do-over," a second chance to cast the right vote.
The Kyl-Lieberman amendment not only designates Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization, it relies on cherry-picked quotes of retired generals and administration insiders to bolster the Defense Department's conclusion that "Tehran's support for [Shi'a militias] in Iraq is one of the greatest impediments to progress in reconciliation." The amendment intimates that diplomatic avenues have been exhausted after a mere three meetings between U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Iranian diplomats during which, according to Ambassador Crocker, it was clear that "...Iranians were interested simply in the appearance of discussions." Imagine that.
Unbelievably, Senator Clinton, faced with one of life's rare do-overs, voted in favor of the Kyl-Lieberman amendment, once again empowering the same warmongering president with a similarly wrong-headed vote. In justifying her vote, Senator Clinton cited evidence that was shown to her by the same ideologues who built a case for the invasion of Iraq. Just when I thought that I was out, they pull me back in. Although the resolution is non-binding, it is far from meaningless. Senator Dodd, who voted against the amendment, said, "We learned in the run up to the Iraq war that seemingly non-binding language passed by this Senate can have profound consequences.... We shouldn't repeat our mistakes and enable this president again."
The simple fact that the United States Senate allowed such an amendment to come to the floor legitimizes the obscene, unconscionable proposition of invading yet another country that has not attacked us. The Senate's bipartisan vote in favor of the amendment validates the ludicrous Bush Doctrine of Preemptive Self Defense by even beginning to consider the possibility of moving against Iran. Furthermore, it empowers Presidents Bush and Ahmadinejad, both of whom lack credibility among moderates in their own countries and rely, therefore, on the inane acts of their respective governments to maintain power and influence.
While Senator Clinton's vote in favor of the amendment, which passed 76-22, displays a frightening inability to learn from past mistakes, Barack Obama and John McCain were the only two senators who failed to vote at all. In casting her vote, Senator Clinton has given herself yet another do-over: the opportunity to apologize for an erroneous vote. Senators Obama and McCain, however, won't find many options sitting on the campaign fence watching other candidates vote.
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