Thought Theater

Bill Clinton Cautions Dems On Iraq & Lieberman genre: Just Jihad & Polispeak & Six Degrees of Speculation

Bill Clinton appeared this past Friday at the Aspen Ideas Festival. While he covered numerous topics, I took particular notice of his remarks about the upcoming midterm elections and the Iraq strategy of the Democratic Party. The remarks received little attention but I was able to find the following at The Atlantic @ Aspen.

Clinton thinks the Democrats should run a nationalized campaign this fall, with national advertising, and he had harsh words for the intra-party infighting over Iraq, and particularly the netroots' campaign against Joe Lieberman. ("The Democrats are making a mistake going after each other for a situation none of them created.") He thinks his party should attack the GOP for not being serious about homeland security, for passing tax cuts while failing to fund port security, and so on.

“We ought to be whipped, us Democrats, if we allow our differences over what to do now in Iraq to divide us" instead of sticking it to the Republicans. He segued into a discussion of Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman’s position in favor of going to war, noting how it squared with the view of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and others that Saddam Hussein was such a menace he should be removed regardless of whether he had WMD. Then, out of the blue, came this: “That was also the position of every Israeli politician I knew, by the way."

While many have focused on Lieberman's Iraq position as a function of supporting President Bush and undermining the Democratic opposition to the war, the Clinton remarks offer some added insight into the Lieberman stance. It wouldn't be difficult to argue that Lieberman's position on Iraq is primarily motivated by his shared concerns with Israel regarding Middle East instability...rather than to assume he is simply supporting the Bush administration. While that argument may not allay the anger and concerns of those who have focused on unseating Lieberman, it does add more dimension to the debate.

Despite the misinformation offered by the Bush administration to justify the invasion and the clear mismanagement of the war effort, Iraq remains an important piece of the Middle East equation. I would suggest that the Democrats would be better served to devise a comprehensive plan for some measure of resolution within Iraq and the region as opposed to debating and disagreeing on a withdrawal time frame. The intra-party conflict in the Connecticut Senate race runs the risk of bringing excessive (and potentially unwarranted) attention to the Democratic differences with regard to an exit strategy while ignoring the Party's position on solving the mess that remains an issue with long range consequences.

Despite the notable unpopularity of the war, what ultimately happens in Iraq will be a factor that voters will weigh before casting their votes in November. The Republican strategy will attempt to prevent the voters from simply focusing on withdrawal and seek to illuminate the risks of an unresolved and unstable Iraq. Democrats need to be prepared for that debate.

Clinton's remarks and his focus on a winning strategy for November are consistent with prior Thought Theater postings here and here.