Kerry: Democrats relevant on war

02/23/2006

Ex-candidate brings views to DFLers today

BY TIM NELSON
Pioneer Press

TWIN CITIES—Are Democrats losing the war in Iraq — at least as a political issue?

February has been a tough month for two Democrats widely known for their critical stances regarding terrorism and the war in Iraq.

FBI whistle-blower Coleen Rowley is drawing a primary challenge in Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District. Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett, who has said the war hasn’t been “worth the price,” was forced out of the U.S. Senate race in Ohio, saying he had been double-crossed by Democrats supporting U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown.

But former presidential candidate John Kerry, who is in Minnesota today for a fundraiser, said those developments don’t signal a waning of the war issue for his party.

“I think the war remains a central issue for Democrats … I think people need to be reminded that there were better choices and that there are better choices now,” the Massachusetts senator said Wednesday. He ran his own unsuccessful campaign in part as a referendum on the war in 2004 and even launched a billboard campaign last fall calling for a partial troop withdrawal.

Kerry is coming to Minneapolis to raise money for DFLers in the Legislature, part of a national effort that he has promised will raise as much as $3 million for Democrats across the country this election cycle.

In an interview from Washington, Kerry said the challenges to Rowley and Hackett had more to do with the candidates themselves than with Democratic hesitation to take on Republicans over national security issues.
“An individual candidacy, particularly in Ohio, is based on more than one issue. And Sherrod Brown obviously has very strong views about the war,” Kerry said.

A new Gallup poll this week suggests 55 percent of Americans believe the war in Iraq was a mistake. Only 31 percent of poll respondents think the United States and its allies are winning in Iraq, the lowest ebb for that measure to date.

But Democrats can’t seem to capitalize on such sentiment, Republicans note.

“It seems like the (Washington) D.C. power brokers are forcing out the Paul Hacketts and the Coleen Rowleys,” said state GOP spokesman Mark Drake. “Instead, they’re getting kind of conventional ‘blue suit, red tie’ Democrats.”
Drake suggests it’s a concession that the “Michael Moore and Howard Dean approach to foreign policy” didn’t resonate with voters and indicates the lingering weakness of Kerry’s “permanent campaign for president.”

Kerry reiterated that he “hadn’t made a decision yet” about his plans for 2008, when voters will select a successor to President Bush.