Reply #20: You make a good point

[...of J.Temperance]

"Let's face it - every Democrat (except Joementum) who voted for this damn war did so out of fear of receiving the same treatment Max Cleland did - in other words, instead of doing what was right, they voted to protect their asses in the next election. No excuse for it."

A politicians main priority is keeping their seat. What the GOP did to Senator Cleland, was DISGUSTING....a man who ACTUALLY WORE a uniform, unlike that twit Saxby Chambliss....a man who left three of his four limbs on the battlefield....and those freaks ran a series of outageous and downright ugly ads against him.

The Democrats knew that the GOP were going to portray us as "weak on terrorism" during a time, when the majority of the public was STILL buying W's horsecrap and allowing themselves to be scared out of their skins by an almost "Reds Under The Bed" type propaganda blitz.

So yeah, the Democrats who voted for the IWR voted out of fear, fear that they'd be subjected to the same treatment as Senator Cleland was subjected to and fear that they'd be portrayed as being "weak on terrorism"

And you know, I'm a DLCer and I'm probably one of the FEW proud and open DLCer's that you'll EVER get to admit what I just admitted.

What the Democratic politicians did that voted for the IWR, was it right? No it wasn't....but I UNDERSTAND WHY they felt that they HAD to vote for the IWR....the GOP scheduled the vote mere WEEKS before the mid-term elections.