Did Hillary Duck a Sucker Punch?
Last March, Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia introduced a bill to insist that President Bush get congressional authorization if he wanted to attack Iran. A few of Webb's fellow Democrats, including Sen. Joe Biden, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, praised the idea. Still, no one signed on as a cosponsor. One reason: if it ever came to a vote—and failed—Bush could feel emboldened as he bullied his way into war with Iran. The bill languished in obscurity until last week, when Webb got his first and only cosponsor: the Democratic presidential front runner, Sen. Hillary Clinton, who was evidently in too much of a hurry to give Webb the customary senatorial heads-up. "I found out after she announced it," he said, laughing. Why now? It's called protection—in this case, from her antiwar left flank.
If Clinton was suddenly anxious about Iran, she had good reason to feel that way—and so do her fellow Democrats. Most analysts, including Webb, agree Iran is a greater threat to security than Iraq ever was. And most Democratic presidential candidates say a nuclear-armed Iran would pose an unacceptable risk. At the same time, however, Democrats feel that they were played for suckers in the run-up to the war in Iraq. Many of them listen with distrust, if not outright disgust, as the administration trots out arguments and evidence that sound eerily like those used to justify a misbegotten and mismanaged war. "We've got to get Iran right—for the country's sake and our own," says Democratic Sen. Robert Casey Jr., a moderate from Pennsylvania.
How to get it right? The search is dividing the party and generating sparks among the top presidential contenders. Last spring, Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Chris Dodd supported a measure for economic sanctions against Iran and asked the State Department to brand the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (the Iranian Army) a "terrorist organization." That wasn't enough for anti-Iran hawks, who insisted Congress take the unprecedented step of making the "terrorist" designation itself. And so the Senate did. Clinton—but not Biden, Dodd or Obama—joined 29 other Democrats in voting "aye." The aim, she said, was to "put some teeth into all this talk about dealing with Iran."
By nature, and now as a front runner, Clinton would rather issue diplomatic communiqués than take one side. Iran may be her toughest challenge. She figured she had her bases covered. Last February—before Webb introduced his bill —she gave a speech in which she conceded the Iranian threat. She also warned Bush not to view earlier congressional votes empowering him to fight terrorism (after 9/11 and before the war in Iraq) as inherent authority to attack Iran.
But her vote on the Revolutionary Guard measure—sponsored by the Senate's hawkish, sort-of Democrat, Joe Lieberman—has given scholars and bloggers in the antiwar netroots fodder; labeling the Iranian Army a terrorist organization, they say, gives Bush the excuse he needs to attack. "It could be read as tantamount to a declaration of war," says Webb. Among the 3.3 million members of Moveon.org, Iran last week replaced Iraq as the top issue, says its president, Eli Pariser. Win Without War, the leading Iraq antiwar coalition, is planning to shift focus to Iran.
Clinton's foes used her vote as an opportunity to berate her. "I have no intention of giving George Bush the authority to take the first step on the road to war in Iran," said former senator John Edwards, staring at her as he spoke at the Democrats' recent debate at Dartmouth. "I'm ashamed of you, Hillary," growled former senator Mike Gravel. In response, she smiled her imperturbable smile, but her staff swung into action. Within days she'd decided to partner with Webb, whether he knew it or not. In this case the medium was the message: she put out the word first on the Internet.
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Howard Fineman is Newsweek's Senior Washington Correspondent and Columnist, senior editor and deputy Washington bureau chief. He is the author of "Living Politics," a column that began on MSNBC.COM and Newsweek.com and that now also appears in the print magazine. An award-winning reporter and writer, Fineman also is an analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, appearing regularly on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," "Hardball with Chris Matthews" and "TODAY." The author of scores of Newsweek cover stories, Fineman's work has appeared as well in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The New Republic. His 2008 national best-selling book, "The Thirteen American Arguments," was released in paperback by Random House in the spring of 2009.
One of the nation's leading political reporters, Fineman has interviewed every major presidential candidate from (then-vice president) George H.W. Bush in 1985 to (then senator) Barack Obama early and often in the 2008 campaign cycle. His current work focuses on the Obama Administration and its top officials, as well as on Congress and politics throughout the country. Although based in Washington, Fineman travels widely in the U.S. and has covered politics and other events in 49 of the 50 states.
Fineman's work has produced many milestones and awards. A cover story in November 2001 featured President George W. Bush's first extensive interview after 9/11. Another cover, "Bush and God," was part of a series of articles that won the 2003 National Magazine Award for General Excellence. His reporting has helped Newsweek win many honors from the Magazine Publishers Association and the American Journalism Review. Other awards include a "Page One" from the Headliners Club of New York, a "Silver Gavel" from the American Bar Association and a "Deadline Club" from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). In 2006 he received the Alumni Award from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
As a reporter and writer, Fineman ranges widely. Besides campaign-year covers, other projects have included: race and politics, the impact of digital technology on society, the influence of Hollywood on politics, the rise of the religious right and of conservative talk radio. He has interviewed business leaders such as George Soros, Bill Gates, Steve Case and Robert Rubin and entertainment figures such as Warren Beatty, Jane Fonda and Jay Leno.
Although now under exclusive television contract to NBC, Fineman over the years has appeared on major public affairs shows, such as Nightline, Face the Nation, Fox News Sunday, Larry King Live, Charlie Rose and the NewsHour. He was a regular panelist on Washington Week in Review on PBS (1983-95) and on CNN's Capital Gang Sunday (1995-98). He worked with Ted Koppel on Nightline specials, and has been a guest on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report."
A native of Pittsburgh, Fineman began his career at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, covering the environment, the coal industry and state politics before joining the newspaper's Washington bureau in 1978. He moved to Newsweek in 1980, was named chief political correspondent in 1984, deputy Washington bureau chief in 1993, senior editor in 1995 and senior Washington correspondent and columnist in 2008.
Fineman holds an A.B., Phi Beta Kappa, from Colgate, an M.S. in journalism from Columbia and a J.D. from the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville. His legal education included a year as a visiting student at the Georgetown University Law Center. He received Watson and Pultizer Traveling Fellowships for study in Europe, Russia and the Middle East, and has traveled to more than 40 countries, among them China, Vietnam, Japan, Ukraine, Israel, Turkey and the West Bank Palestinian Territories.
Fineman is married to Amy L. Nathan, a senior counsel at the Federal Communications Commission. They live in Washington with their two children, Meredith and Nicholas.
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