Kerry Was Against Cut-and-Run Before He Was For It

John Kerry is desperate to retreat from Iraq...today...but that wasn't the case during the early days of the presidential campaign:

While Democrats bristle at Republican descriptions of their Iraq policy as "cut and run," Sen. John Kerry, the author of a bill defeated today in the Senate, used that very term to criticize President Bush's consideration during the 2004 election campaign of a timetable for withdrawal.

In a December 2003 speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, the Massachusetts Democrat said he feared that "in the run-up to the 2004 election, the administration is considering what is tantamount to a cut-and-run strategy," notes Townhall.com writer Tim Chapman.

"Their sudden embrace of accelerated Iraqification and American troop withdrawal dates, without adequate stability, is an invitation to failure," Kerry said in his 2003 speech. "The hard work of rebuilding Iraq must not be dictated by the schedule of the next American election."

Kerry said it "would be a disaster and a disgraceful betrayal of principle to speed up the process simply to lay the groundwork for a politically expedient withdrawal of American troops. That could risk the hijacking of Iraq by terrorist groups and former Ba'athists."

Of course you have to remember that in December of 2003 Howard the Donkey hadn't completed his collapse yet, and since Howie was calling for withdrawal, Kerry had to try and look sensible (which wasn't hard compared to Howie). Consequently, it was politically expedient at that time for Kerry to be in favor of "staying the course".

However, Kerry suffers from a familiar Dem disease. Democrats never think anyone will remember or track down their past statements. They think they can utter any absurdity and their words will simply vanish into the ether should they decide to change their mind later.

He should have stuck with his original position. If he had, he wouldn't have lost 93-6 and 86-13.