Dick Gephardt is the one Democrat most responsible for the Iraq War

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

He was the man responsible for the "all Dems need to vote for the war quick before the mid-terms so we can go home to campaign" strategy in 2002. (He was minority leader, as you'll recall... God, was that only six years ago?)

He also ran Osama Bin Laden ads against Howard Dean.

So I hope nobody here is taking him seriously as a VP choice.

(Whatever objections anyone has to Hillary, Gephardt is that times ten.)

[PatSeg]

1. Thank you

And he was all buddy-buddy with Bush who didn't want an amendment that would restrict his power. I'd forgotten about that.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

2. And most of his party voted against him, I think.

Wasn't the House vote pugs + a slim minority of Dems?

[PatSeg]

3. My memory of it now is very foggy

but I know it absolutely reeked at the time. The far left Dems were beyond compromise of any kind, just a flat out "no" so it split the Democratic vote. I think someone else here posted a link that might be more informative.

[DFLforever]

5. 81 House Dems voted for it - organized by Gephardt.

126 Dems voted against it -organized by Pelosi

215 Repubs for
6 Repubs against

Wiki's our friend. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Resolution

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

6. Thanks. So 60%-40% against among House Dems

Senate Dems went 58%-42% for it.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

4. from the memory hole:

Liberal Gephardt Sides With Bush on Iraq War Resolution
By Nick Anderson
October 03, 2002 in print edition A-5

By winning the blessing of the liberal House Democratic leader, President Bush scored a coup Wednesday in his drive for a strong show of bipartisan support for a war resolution to confront Saddam Hussein...

With his appearance in the Rose Garden, endorsing the resolution alongside the president and Republican congressional leaders, Gephardt broke definitively from many in the liberal base of his party who remain unpersuaded of the need for a new Gulf War. He also won effusive praise from the conservative Republicans who usually denounce him as a left-wing zealot...

Some critics of the administration, however, fumed at Wednesday’s developments. And some Senate Democrats who were seeking to modify the proposal even further, such as Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, were left in the lurch.

[PatSeg]

7. That's it

I was looking but getting tired. Bush told Gephardt don't let the Biden amendment see the light of day (paraphrasing) and it never got out of committee.