Vance looks like a total idiot

AP writer Matthew Daly has a story about the Republican party chairman's pathetic attacks on Sen. Maria Cantwell:

The leader of Washington state Republicans is accusing Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of flip-flopping on the Iraq war.

Cantwell, who voted in favor of the war in 2002 and has supported all measures to fund it, was one of 38 Democratic senators who signed a letter to President Bush in October, urging him to "change the course" in Iraq. Last month, she voted in favor of a Democratic amendment calling for a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Washington state GOP Chairman Chris Vance called Cantwell's recent actions hypocritical and suggested she is reacting to liberal critics who are dissatisfied with her support for the war.

Chris, maybe you don't understand this, but Maria is reacting to reality. Iraq has become a massive fiasco, a disastrous debacle, an awful entanglement - however you want to put it, it's a big mess. And as it turns out, the rationale for going to war was entirely flawed.

That is what Cantwell is reacting to. Slow realization that George W. Bush and his cronies are not interested in democracy, or justice, or even fighting the real terrorists. Their priorities are out of whack, and Americans are unhappy about it.

But, fortunately, I don't even have to worry about making Chris Vance look like an idiot, because Todd Donovan has graciously done it for me:

A political scientist said Cantwell's stance is unlikely to hurt her in Washington state, where many Democrats and independents have long opposed the Iraq war. The state supported Democrat John Kerry for president in 2004.

"Whether you say she's moving toward public opinion or trying to lead public opinion, that will be spun in different ways," said Todd Donovan of Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash.

But any remarks critical of the Iraq war "are not something that could hurt her, and it could possibly help her, given how much public opinion has changed" against the war, Donovan said.

At most, a potential Republican opponent could attack Cantwell for being inconsistent - hardly the most effective criticism of a politician, Donovan said.

"If she's inconsistent but is adopting a position that is shared by more voters, it's hard to see what damage that could do," he said.

Todd Donovan is right on! Polls indicate that a large majority of the American people are very dissatisfied with Bush's leadership and don't like how things are going in Iraq. Chris Vance can blabber on all he wants about how Maria's changed her position and how phony he thinks she is. His attacks are full of hollow, empty rhetoric that won't, and shouldn't, be taken seriously.

Finally...more evidence that Chris Vance has just become an attack dog:

Indeed, Cantwell's likely Republican opponent, Mike McGavick, has not made an issue of the Iraq war and passed up several chances during a recent interview with The Associated Press to criticize the incumbent, her record or her party.

"We have two quality candidates with very different beliefs," he said.
Vance, by contrast, has issued several news releases blistering Cantwell for "flip-flopping" on the war.

We don't like McGavick, but it's very interesting that he's refused to follow Vance's lead. That's a wise decision, because while Chirs Vance may make a great attack dog, he's definitely not an intelligent leader.