John Edwards Grovels for the Wacky Left

John Edwards (you remember him - he ran with that other guy on the Dem ticket in 2004) has made what clearly looks like a calculated attempt to get back in the good graces of the wacky left. Today he issued a "mea culpa" of sorts in an op-ed piece:

Former US Senator John Edwards, the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004, broke with his campaign stance on the war in Iraq, declaring in a newspaper opinion piece that he made "a mistake" in supporting the invasion.

"I was wrong," Edwards wrote in the Washington Post, saying he now regrets his decision to give US President George W. Bush the authority to invade Iraq.

"Almost three years ago we went into Iraq to remove what we were told -- and what many of us believed and argued -- was a threat to America. But in fact we now know that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction when our forces invaded Iraq in 2003."

The former North Carolina senator continued: "The intelligence was deeply flawed and, in some cases, manipulated to fit a political agenda."

"It was a mistake to vote for this war in 2002. I take responsibility for that mistake," Edwards wrote, in what will likely be seen as a gambit to reposition himself ahead of a 2008 presidential run.

No kidding. Look for many more Dem '08 hopefuls to run to the mics and op-ed pages to make similar confessions of sins real and imagined. There's just too much money out there in the Soros/MoveOn crowd to risk ticking them off.

Another 2008 hopeful doesn't share Edward delusional thoughts about "manipulated intelligence". Here's what John McCain had to say today (h/t Instapundit):

SCHIEFFER: President Bush accused his critics of rewriting history last week.

Sen. McCAIN: Yeah.

SCHIEFFER: And in--he said in doing so, the criticisms they were making of his war policy was endangering our troops in Iraq. Do you believe it is unpatriotic to criticize the Iraq policy?

Sen. McCAIN: No, I think it's a very legitimate aspect of American life to criticize and to disagree and to debate. But I want to say I think it's a lie to say that the president lied to the American people. I sat on the Robb-Silverman Commission. I saw many, many analysts that came before that committee. I asked every one of them--I said, `Did--were you ever pressured politically or any other way to change your analysis of the situation as you saw?' Every one of them said no.

It looks like the GOP pushback against the "Bush lied" fantasy is become more organized, and not a moment too soon.

Finally, my favorite moment of the morning shows. Sen. Jay Rockefeller on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace:

SEN. ROCKEFELLER: Chris, there's always the same conversation. You know it was not the Congress that sent 135,000 or 150,000 troops.

WALLACE: But you voted, sir, and aren't you responsible for your vote?

SEN. ROCKEFELLER: No.

WALLACE: You're not?

Don't you just hate it when the interviewer knocks you off your talking points?