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Where Have You Gone, Antiwar Sam Brownback?

Come to think of it, whatever happened to the absurd myth of Sam Brownback, Antiwar Candidate?  It was popular for a while, especially when Hewitt managed to persuade many people that even criticising aspects of the surge was tantamount to aiding the enemy.  Brownback probably managed to cripple his candidacy with war supporters without actually taking anything […]

Come to think of it, whatever happened to the absurd myth of Sam Brownback, Antiwar Candidate?  It was popular for a while, especially when Hewitt managed to persuade many people that even criticising aspects of the surge was tantamount to aiding the enemy.  Brownback probably managed to cripple his candidacy with war supporters without actually taking anything that might resemble a real stand against either the surge or the war.  Indeed, when it came time to put his money where his mealy mouth was, he voted against cloture again last Saturday and helped make sure that there would be no anti-surge resolution vote.  His chance to distinguish himself from the rest of the presidential field was there, and he ignored it.  Presumably that is because he really is as reflexively pro-war as he always has been, just as I have been saying all along

Andrew Sullivan, always a keen observer of non-existent trends, was very excited about his “discovery” of the rise of the antiwar social conservative candidate.  For some strange reason, he has never gotten very excited about any actual socially conservative antiwar Republicans (such as Ron Paul) who have been opposed to the Iraq war all along, but he boldly predicted that Brownback’s alleged defection from the War Party represented the thin end of the wedge and marked the beginning of a GOP turn against the President.  The Republican backlash against the surge was on

Obviously, when only seven Republican Senators voted for cloture to allow a vote on the resolution, and Brownback was not one of them, there really is no general GOP backlash against the surge worth mentioning.  Certainly, Brownback’s foray into dissent on foreign policy in the Near East does not inspire much confidence in any constituency: for the neocons and Hewitts of the world, he is a little too shaky in his support (he even wants to talk to Syria!), while for sane people he is far too dedicated to the war.   

In fact, Sullivan was, as he often is, very, very wrong.  As I noted at the time, Brownback’s measly criticisms of the surge plan were rather half-hearted and his own quarter-measure proposal made the original half-measure of the surge seem ingenious by comparison.  As he said in his own announcement speech, he supports the war and wants to achieve victory.  Chuck Hagel he is not.  But, then again, Chuck Hagel isn’t really antiwar, either, but don’t get me started on that one

Update: Samnesty explains how he still doesn’t think the surge will work, but says that he voted for cloture because the Democrats wouldn’t allow any GOP resolutions.  So he manages to offend just about everybody–no wonder Senators never get elected President!

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