Republican intercepted a Dem talking points memo?

[Bravus]

Here's Republican senator Chuck Hagel:

That was not the reason I voted for the resolution. I wasn't convinced [of WMD] or in any way connected Saddam Hussein with 9/11. Before we even had the vote I said that. Some get the resolution wrong. It wasn't a resolution to go to war ... Ultimately it was giving the president authority to use force if all the diplomatic efforts fail. If there was no other recourse it would allow the president to use force. I believed the president and others who said they would exhaust all diplomatic efforts. Which they did not. They told us they would and they did not.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/04/30/hagel_interview/

[Dr. Shane]

If we go back and read the prewar press we will see these talking points actually came from Senator Tam Daschle who was MAJORITY leader of the Senate at the time. However, if we believe them, we really are gullible. It was a set up from the beginning. If the war went well, they could claim to have supported it. If it went bad, they had already made a way from them to run away from their vote. If they wanted the President to exhaust all diplomatic means first, why didn't they tell him to first exhaust all diplomatic means and then ask for authorization to use force? (The President can use force without Congressional approval and as per the War Powers Act, has something like 90 days to get approval after the fact.)

Those that were truly against the war, voted against the war. My congressman was one of them. If the war had went well, they wouldn't have been able to take any credit for it. At the time, the majority of Americans favored the war and these Congressmen were voting on their principle, against what the majority of Americans wanted. They deserve to be respected for their their stand on the war.

The real story in this story is that a Republican is running away from his vote. This is newsworthy because Democrats think they can win the White House in 2008 by running against George W. Bush. However in order for them to do that, the Republican candidate is going to have to stay in Bush's shadow, which is unlikely.