1. Not a vote for pre-emptive war.
2. The vote was to get inspectors back in.
And in Senator Obama's recent book, he clearly says he thought that Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological weapons, and that he still coveted nuclear weapons. His judgment was that, at the time in 2002, we didn't need to make any efforts. My belief was we did need to pin Saddam down, put inspectors in.
3. Didn't vote for Levin's amendment because it seemed to give UN Security Council veto power over US President. Did work with Byrd on an amendment that would limit the president's authorization to one year. Was very strongly in favor of limiting what President Bush could do. Worked later with Levin to make sure inspectors got what they needed.
4. Despite what the name implies, Hillary said it was meant to be suthorization to use the threat of force, not actual authorization to go to war. Quoted Chuck Hagel. Mentioned that both she and Hagel received assurances from the White House that inspectors would be allowed to finish their job:
You know, when Chuck Hagel, who helped to draft the resolution, said it was not a vote for war, when I was told directly by the White House in response to my question, "if you are given this authority, will you put the inspectors in and permit them to finish their job," I was told that's exactly what we intended to do.
5. Would have voted against it if she knew Bush would misuse the authority.
It was a sincere vote at the time, based on my assessment of, number one, what the potential, you know, risks might be if left unchecked, given the problems that we were facing in the world with global terrorism, and the hope that we would get inspectors back in to figure out what had been going on since '98. We hadn't had inspectors since '98. I, I would not have given President Bush the authority if I knew he would deliberately misuse and abuse it. And as I said, I was told by the White House personally that the point of the authority was to send a very clear message to Saddam Hussein that he was going to have to be held accountable finally, that we would know once and for all what he had there that could be used as he had used it in the past.
6. Didn't read the NIE because she had been thoroughly briefed. And went beyond what Bush administration briefers told her to talk with other knowledgable people.
I was fully briefed by the people who wrote that. I was briefed by the people from, you know, the State Department, the CIA, the Department of Defense; all of the various players in that. And many people who read it--well, actually, not very many people read the whole thing because we were getting constant briefings. And people--some people read it and voted for the resolution, some people read it and voted against the resolution. I felt very well briefed. And it wasn't just what the Bush administration was telling us in the NIE, I went way outside of any kind of Bush administration sources; independent people, people from the Clinton administration, people in the British government. I looked as broadly as I could at how to assess this.
7. It became obvious after the vote that Bush intended to go to war no matter what happened.
If those inspectors had been permitted to do the job that they were set up to do, we would have avoided war. It became clear in retrospect, Tim, once people started writing books and information came out of the administration, the president had no intention of letting the inspectors do their job.
Barack's problems on Iraq?
Hillary mentioned that Barack said in his latest book that he thought Saddam still had chemical and biological weapons but in spite of that did not support any action at the time. If he thought Saddam had weapons, why did he not support letting inspectors back in? If he thought Bush was going to war no matter what, I suppose he could say that we should not give him anything that could remotely be interpreted as authorization. But I think his biggest problem is with his promise to put aside the tired partisan politics of the past, with Hillary being the one he thinks represents that partisan past. In this instance she did the very thing Barack is promising to, set down and work with Republicans and show some trust. By trusting the Bush administration when it gave personal assurances that it would let the weapons inspectors finish, she did the very sort of thing that Barack is promising to do to end partisan politics. And she got burned because the Republicans she dealt with were not trustworthy. I am concerned that the same will happen to Barack if he is President.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/1/13/184834/748/955/434331