Kerry: Ned Lamont ...successfully challenging the Bush position on Iraq

These Candidates Are Working to Stop Bush's Aimless Course in Iraq

We say America needs candidates who take strong positions and have the courage of their convictions. We've got them. We're searching for leaders who understand that we can't change George Bush and Don Rumsfeld's aimless course in Iraq if we don't stand up in this fall's campaign and demand change. These leaders are standing right in front of us.

So now the question is: Can Ned Lamont, Daniel Akaka, and Bob Menendez count on us to act right now and pull them through to victory?

Support Strong Leaders Who Aren't Afraid to Tell the Truth About Iraq

Each of these strong leaders has forcefully spoken out in favor of a clear timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Despite the "warnings" coming from consultants, political pundits and naysayers in Washington, each of these candidates is making the mess in Iraq a central issue in their campaigns for the Senate. They aren't afraid to talk about why the war is wrong and what must be done to change course and start doing what is best for our troops and our country. And they aren't afraid to stand up for a better way that will bring our heroes home and put Iraq in Iraqis' hands.

It's time to reward their courage.

Support Strong Leaders Who Aren't Afraid to Tell the Truth About Iraq

In Connecticut, Ned Lamont has caused a national stir by successfully challenging the Bush position on Iraq that ignores the utter failure of the President's policy and calls for a deeply misplaced reliance on a dangerous course of action. In the Senate, Ned Lamont will go head to head with Don Rumsfeld, and our troops will benefit from Lamont's leadership. He knows that patriotism isn't reserved for those who defend a President's position; patriotism is doing what's right for our troops and our country.

My friend Dan Akaka (D-HI) has been a powerful voice of opposition to dangerous policies, as one of 13 votes in favor of the Kerry-Feingold amendment calling on the Bush administration to withdraw all U.S. combat troops by the middle of 2007.

My colleague Bob Menendez (D-NJ) proudly supported that amendment, as well. In fact, the day after we voted, he put his money where his vote was, putting an ad on TV saying it was time to start bringing our troops home. His vote was that important to him.

Ned, Dan, and Bob have been attacked mercilessly for acting with such conviction and are locked in close must-win races.

It's time to support candidates who are willing to tell the truth: that George W. Bush's policies have failed to make America safe and that it is time to change course in the war in Iraq.

Support Strong Leaders Who Aren't Afraid to Tell the Truth About Iraq

Helping win victories for Democratic candidates who have acted with clarity on the war in Iraq is the best way to bring George W. Bush's miserable failure to an end.

But, we can't fool ourselves. None of these candidates will coast to victory -- not in the face of the brutal, unprincipled assaults on their character and patriotism that are the stock in trade of the Bush-Cheney-Rove political machine.

If we want these Democrats to win, we've got to throw our support behind them. We have to use the last few months of this campaign to pull them through to victory -- and to drive from office politicians who continue to support the President's miserable failure in Iraq.

If we want to reward their courage, we've got to commit ourselves to pulling them through to victory.

Support Strong Leaders Who Aren't Afraid to Tell the Truth About Iraq

I know how urgently you want to turn America around -- not only on Iraq, but on a wide range of crucial issues. I'm telling you this: there is no better way to challenge the harmful policies of the Bush administration than to throw our support behind these three candidates.

They're telling the truth on the campaign trail -- that America is on the wrong course in Iraq, that it's time to withdraw our troops and leave Iraq's future in the hands of the Iraqi people, and that, behind all the Bush bluster and bombast, all you can find is a string of misjudgments, deceits, and failures that have seriously imperiled our national security.

I urge you to help elect candidates who will join me in telling those truths every day on the floor of the United States Senate -- never yielding until we turn America around and bring our troops home from Iraq.

Sincerely,

John Kerry

The Democrats Mean Business

Washington needs an entrepreneurial approach.
BY NED LAMONT
Wednesday, August 16, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT

In the past week, my victory in the Connecticut Senate primary has been labeled everything from the death knell of the Democratic Party to the signal of our party's rebirth. Beneath all of this punditry is a question that I want to face directly: how the experience I will bring to the U.S. Senate will help Connecticut and the Democratic Party during this time of testing for our country.

Snip...

By every available metric, the "stay the course" strategy in Iraq is not a winning strategy. Changing course is neither extreme nor weak; it is essential for our national security.

We start with the strongest, best-trained military in the world, and we'll keep it that way. But here's how we'll get stronger by changing course. We must work closely with our allies and treat the rest of the world with respect. We must implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and put in place real protections for ports, airports, nuclear facilities and public transit.

Good judgment is an essential part of good governance. But we're bogged down in Iraq, and hamstrung in the war against terror, by leaders who lacked judgment, historical perspective, openness to other cultures and plain old common sense. We offer something different.

But in the final analysis, the results of this election say less about me, and more about the people of Connecticut. They turned out in record numbers; they spoke every day with a simple eloquence and urgency about the country we love. They oppose the war and the fiscal nightmare crafted by President Bush and his allies. But their vote, finally, was one based on pragmatism and reality, on optimism and hope. And it is to these ideals and values that we plan to address my campaign in the months until November.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008801