"When I voted for the war, I voted for what I thought was best for the country. Did I expect Howard Dean to go off to the left and say, `I'm against everything?' Sure. Did I expect George Bush to f--- it up as badly as he did? I don't think anybody did.''

- Sen John Kerry, Rolling Stone interview

"[O]n Iraq, he praised the president's case as 'eloquent, powerful and convincing.' ... But he is stunned by the Bush administration's mishandling of the aftermath, he says."

- Sen Joe Lieberman, NYT profile

Now the Kerry quote is getting some flack from the White House because it is deemed too insulting, which is silly, though it might make him sound like he is trying too hard to sound tough. My problem is his claim that somehow we are to believe everyone was clearly shocked by how the President handled things, what he did with the power given. Sen. Lieberman's quote focused on the aftermath, but it is somewhat comparable. Meanwhile, Sen. Clinton complains that though she supported giving him the power, the President basically fucked up the responsibility that came with it, just without using that word.

The trouble is that many people, including experts, did warn that things might go badly. Likewise, many did not trust the President and his administration, even those sympathetic to the invasion. Finally, even many of those who supported the invasion were a bit wary about how it was being promoted. Thus, though surely the votes of Kerry and Lieberman were defensible (wrong, I think, but that's another story), their after the fact horror is a bit hard to take. Sen. Kerry is especially annoying -- he not only wants people to accept his vote, but accept that it was surely right, since who would imagine that the President would foul things up so much?

Moi, to name one of the less important ones, except to the degree that people like I will decide whether or not to vote for the guy. And, some wonder why people are so cynical about his defense of the vote. They know what power it gave, they knew who was given said power, and a likely result of such power. For him to suddenly claim to be surprised and ask us to accept that said surprise is the only logical thing is much more offensive than his use of the "f" word.