I was too quick to reach a harsh judgment of Edwards. An email:
Concerning that story about John Edwards and his Iraq war vote, I just
don’t believe Bob Shrum. If Edwards had been making a CYA vote, I just
don’t see him going out and saying things like this:
“I think Iraq is the most serious and imminent threat to our
country.”–John Edwards, “CNN Late Edition,” Feb. 24, 2002
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0202/24/le.00.html
Or this:
“Well, the first thing I should say is I take responsibility for my
vote. Period. And I did what I did based upon a belief, Chris, that
Saddam Hussein’s potential for getting nuclear capability was what
created the threat. That was always the focus of my concern. Still is
the focus of my concern. So did I get misled? No. I didn’t get misled…
[A]s you know, I serve on the Senate Intelligence Committee. So it
wasn’t just the Bush administration. I sat in meeting after meeting
after meeting where we were told about the presence of weapons of mass
destruction. There is clearly a disconnect between what we were told and
what, in fact, we found there.” –John Edwards, “Hardball,” Oct. 13,
2003
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3131295/
And there are plenty of other quotes where these came from. There’s
little doubt that Edwards’ current position is one of political
expediency, but it would seem that he was once upon a time a true
believer.