Is Late Better Than Never?

A lot of locals seem to be impressed by the conversion of state Senator Ben Westlund from Republican to Independent to Democrat over the course of 2006. There’s talk of him running against US Senator Gordon Smith in 2008.

In the interview mentioned in the Blue Oregon post linked above, Westlund talks about how he “grew weary of the intolerance” of many of his fellow Republicans. I certainly can’t fault him for that, but I do wonder why it took him so long to figure that out: the religious right has been ascendent in the Republican Party for mor than a quarter-century now; Pat Robertson had enough delegates at the national Republican convention to make things uncomfortable for Vice President George H.W. Bush in 1988.

And yes, I’m a skeptic. I like evidence. I want proof. I prefer a record. A party switch two years before a Senate seat comes up when many of the Democratic potentials seem to be sitting it out? That seems a little calculated. I’d love to see someone who was a Democrat before the November 2006 elections actually in the race.

Most important to me if he decides to make a try for the Senate is, what stand did he take on Iraq? Because that one issue is draining the country for hundreds of billions a year. Someone with common sense — say, Senator Wyden, or Congressman Blumenauer, or Congressman DeFazio, or Congresswoman Hooley, or Congressman Wu — might have expressed some doubts about the reasons for going to war in Iraq by, say, voting against the October 2002 Authorization to Use Military Force. Senator Westlund wasn’t in Congress, so he didn’t vote on the issue, but I found a letter he wrote nearly two years after the invasion of Iraq and posted it in my comment on Blue Oregon.

Ben Westlund, almost exactly two years ago (8 January 2005), my emphasis added:

To The Troops and Caring For Troops:

Right up front. . . . . let me just say I love you guys and wish I were speaking these words to you in person. BJ, Taylor and I would like nothing better than to spend the morning packing care boxes with all of you as we have proudly done before. But the truth is we’re doing something I wish each and every one of you and your loved ones in Iraq could be doing. . attending a long-scheduled family football outing. . . yes, we’re watching the Seattle Seahawks beat up the St. Louis “Bad guy” Rams.

I don’t say that to heighten your pain of separation from your loved one. . . but to underscore what they’re fighting for . . . it’s our freedoms: moments at the movies, school plays, our right to vote, and yes Saturday football . . . it’s our way of life. They are protecting our very existence.

What you are doing is so important. . . sending a little bit of home to our troops in Iraq. I can’t tell you how inspired I am by each of you.

Volunteering a few hours of your day will mean so much to each member of G Troop . . . these packages will lift their spirits and let them know how much we care.

Thank you and carry on!!

Ben

I’m not about to vote for anyone in the Democratic primary who was gullible enough to fall for the tissue of lies that got the US into the Iraq war. I don’t think we need to replace someone like Gordon Smith with someone else who would make the same mistake — one that none of the Democratic members of the Oregon Congressional delegation made — of green-lighting a similar military operation or other misadventure, no matter what their stand on health care, because so long as those kinds of wasteful mistakes are made, there’s not going to be enough money left to fund any kind of comprehensive plan for anything.

Have any of the people impressed by Westlund bothered to ask him about his stand on Iraq? Or why anyone should trust him on that type of issue any more than you’d trust, say, Gordon Smith?

In comments about Senator Smith’s post-election cris-de-coeur over Iraq, Westlund is quoted saying “If you come to an enlightened position late, that’s better than not coming to it at all,” which might explain his own situation as well, but it’s still better not to make the incredibly stupid mistake in the first place, when it involves the deaths of tens or hundreds of thousands of people.