I'm not feelin' it, Ms. Clinton

Hillary Clinton has a very interesting interpretation of history when it comes to her 2002 vote in favor of the Iraq War resolution. "I said this was not a vote for preemptive war," Clinton asserted last week in Iowa. "The president took my vote, and others’ votes, and basically misused the authority we gave him."

I'm sorry, but I don't buy it. At all.

All of us who were watching the debate over that resolution knew full well that its passage was a green light for Mr. Bush to launch an ill-advised, unilateral attack (or, as I put it around that time, "bomb first, ask questions later"). Anyone who tells you otherwise either (1) is trying to re-write history and blame the president for her own lapse in judgment or (2) was way too trusting of an administration that was clearly dead-set on taking out Saddam Hussein at all costs, whether or not he actually had WMDs. Neither option inspires much confidence.

I think the truth is that Ms. Clinton genuinely supported this preemptive war from the beginning but is afraid to say so now. So she's trying to shirk responsibility by claiming she had absolutely no idea! that Mr. Bush would do PRECISELY WHAT SHE AND HER FELLOW LEGISLATORS EXPLICITLY EMPOWERED HIM TO DO. (One senses Ms. Clinton channeling the spirit of Capt. Louis Renault: "I'm shocked, shocked to find that warmongering is going on in here!")

At least John Edwards had the courage to come out and admit that his vote in favor of the resolution was flat-out wrong. Oh, and then there's Barack Obama, who opposed this whole God-forsaken mess from the beginning.