Liberal Oasis on Kerry...
...and his continued defense of the indefensible--his vote on the Iraq war:

Yesterday (on Meet the Press), Kerry gave a defense full of holes and contradictions. It's spin that makes your head spin.

He said:

"The bottom line is that we voted on the basis of information that was given to us, that has since then been proven to be incorrect."

OK then, you got had. Not your fault. Perhaps we shouldn’t have gone to war and you should retract your original position.

But Kerry won’t go there:

"…it was right to hold Saddam Hussein accountable, absolutely correct.

And anybody who doesn't believe it wasn't correct ought to go dig around in those graves or even make a judgment about what would happen if you left Saddam Hussein alone to do this."

Alone to do what exactly, if the info on WMD was incorrect?

And Saddam’s cruelty towards his own people wasn’t Kerry’s rationale going in. In his own words yesterday:

"I didn't base it on the nuclear, but the most important and compelling rationale were the lack of inspections and the non-compliance of Saddam Hussein.

Even Hans Blix at the United Nations said he is not in compliance."

Essentially, chem and bio weapons it would seem was Kerry's concern (that was Blix’s jurisdiction). Not mass graves. Not nukes.

But hold on again. Just before that answer, Russert aired a clip of Kerry's Oct. ’02 Senate floor speech explaining his position then:

"According to the CIA's report, all U.S. intelligence experts agree that they are seeking nuclear weapons. There is little question that Saddam Hussein wants to develop them."

It’s just a mess. He’s talked himself into a hole that now he can’t get out of.

He should have either taken the Joe Lieberman route, somewhat downplaying the Bush lies, as Lieberman did on CBS’ Face The Nation yesterday:

"…the president and the administration, I'm afraid, did overstate the case in some ways.

And what bothers me about that is that it wasn't necessary. [It] has threatened to give a bad name to what I'm convinced was a just war."

Or, you can take the claim that you were given “incorrect” info to its logical conclusion and renounce your vote.

Of course, the Lieberman route would pull Kerry farther to the Right than he wants to be.

And to renounce the war completely would peg him an “anti-war” candidate (and, perhaps more unfairly, a “flip-flopper”).

That’s not part of the Kerry game plan.

So Kerry’s made his bed, and he’s chosen to lie in it, messy as the bed may be.

[Update] BartCop wasn't impressed with Kerry either.