Obama: Iraq war splits Democrats
By Jeff Zeleny and Rick Pearson Tribune staff reporters
Sen. Barack Obama said Monday that the Democratic Party was unlikely to reconcile its differences and reach a unified strategy for Iraq, conceding: "The politics and the policy of this may not match perfectly."
As Democrats work to win control of Congress in the 2006 elections, Obama (D-Ill.) said a cacophony of views over the Iraq war threatens to divide the party once again.
"It is arguable that the best politics going into '06 would be a clear succinct message: `Let's bring our troops home,' " Obama said. "It's certainly easier to communicate and I think would probably have some pretty strong resonance with the American people right now, but whether that's the best policy right now, I don't feel comfortable saying it is."
In an interview with the Tribune's editorial board, Obama renewed his opposition to immediately pulling troops from Iraq. A growing number of Democrats and liberal groups have called for a troop withdrawal, while party leaders such as Sens. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York have dismissed such efforts as dangerously misguided.
"It's a little too early to tell how coherent the Democratic message is," Obama said. If quick progress isn't made in Iraq, he added, "you're probably going to see strong differences within the party leadership about how to proceed."
The senator also said the U.S. must accept the outcome of next week's Iraqi parliamentary elections, even if the results are not precisely what President Bush may hope for in the administration's quest to bring peace and democracy to the Middle East.
"Not only would it be disastrous from a public relations point of view," Obama said, "but I think it would be morally objectionable for us to backtrack on the notion that the Iraqi people should make decisions about their own lives."
In a wide-ranging discussion as his first year in office draws to a close, Obama said, "there could have been more honesty" as the president argued his case for war. But he stopped short of saying that Bush lied to the American people.
"At one town meeting someone said: `Shouldn't the president be impeached for lying?' " Obama recalled. "And I said, `Well, FDR, JFK, LBJ -- we have a pretty long list of presidents who maybe were not entirely forthcoming with intelligence information before they went to war, so I'd be cautious against making legal cases against the administration.' "
Obama said his decision to oppose the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. was "the most difficult vote" of the year. He said he has not decided whether to support the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito but added he is "disturbed with the pattern of his case law, primarily because it never surprises."
Gov. Rod Blagojevich sent a letter Monday to Obama and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), urging them to consider memos Alito wrote two decades ago that Blagojevich said "threatened" abortion rights.
Obama said he is more troubled by Alito's record as a federal appellate judge.
"I'm very cautious about attributing a lot of weight to statements that were made 20 or 30 years ago," Obama said.
"There's an amazing consistency in which he is ruling for the more powerful against the less powerful, across the board," Obama added. "And, that concerns me. That makes me suspicious."