BCT Editorial – 6/21/06

This page was last updated on June 22, 2006.

Now and then; Editorial; Beaver County Times; June 21, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“The quagmire the Bush administration has created in Iraq often is compared to what happened four decades earlier in Vietnam.

“But a better war to compare the present one to is the Mexican War, which bitterly divided the nation.

“House Republicans last week tried to embarrass Democrats into voting for or against a carefully worded measure that put Democrats in the position of being open to the charge of not supporting the troops if they voted against. It was standard Karl Rove politics.”

[RWC] The “carefully worded measure” was H. Res. 861. The measure passed 256 – 153. Democrats voted 42 – 149.

“But the tactic was nothing new. During and after the Mexican War, President John Polk and the Democrats who controlled Congress constantly worded legislation in such as way that opened Whigs, who by and large opposed the war, to the charge of not supporting the troops.

“Like today’s opponents of the occupation of Iraq, Whigs drew a distinction between the justifications the Polk administration used for going to war and its ongoing policies, which they thought were bogus, and supporting the troops.

“For instance, the preamble to the declaration of war stated, ‘Whereas war exists by the act of Mexico, therefore we send Gen. Taylor men and money.’ Whigs tried to strike the preamble but failed.

“Because Democrats controlled the House, the preamble stayed, which left Whigs to vote for the measure - which would allow Democrats to crow that they supported Polk’s decision - or to vote against it - which opened Whigs to the charge of not supporting the troops. Democrats did this time and time again.

“The more things change, the more they really do stay the same, don’t they?”

[RWC] Read the resolution and make your own decision.