Some foreign-policy sense

Democrats and Iran: Hillary outsmarts her dovish competition

Excerpt:

Kudos to Hillary Clinton--yes, you read that right--for her Senate vote this week urging the U.S. to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization. That's more than can be said for her primary competition of Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson and John Edwards, who assailed her on this score at Wednesday's Democratic Presidential candidates debate at Dartmouth. These are men who seem to fear the Netroots more than the mullahs.

Mrs. Clinton's vote was on a symbolic amendment offered by Connecticut maverick Joe Lieberman and Republicans Jon Kyl and Norm Coleman. After marshaling the evidence of Iran's terrorist activities in Iraq, the amendment stated that "it is a critical national interest of the United States to prevent [Iran] from turning Shi'a militia into a Hezbollah-like force that could serve its interests inside Iraq." Twenty-one Democrats, including Joe Biden and John Kerry, apparently found this too shocking to support and voted nay, as did Republicans Chuck Hagel and Dick Lugar.

We probably shouldn't complain when 76 Senators, including a majority of Democrats, show some foreign-policy sense. Still, it's telling that the Democrats only agreed to the amendment after demanding that its language be edited to remove a statement that "it should be the policy of the United States to stop inside Iraq the violent activities and destabilizing influence" of Iran. Also left on the cutting-room floor, under Democratic duress, was a call "to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq" with respect to Iran and its proxies.



Comments:

1. Note Minnesota's Republican Senator Norm Coleman above!
   
2. My prediction for the Democratic ticket: Hillary for President & Bill Richardson for VP. Why Bill Richardson: balances and adds the ticket this way: SW, Hispanic, relatively moderate, has links to the Clintons, & foreign policy experience (Wiki Bill Richardson).
   
3. My prediction for the Republican ticket (foggy right now): I think Tim Pawlenty could be in play as the VP. Why? Younger, could balance the ticket if Mitt Romney or Rudi were top of the ticket.