June 06, 2008 07:43 PM UTC

Udall hammers Schaffer on Iraq war

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• by: Alan

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

When various liberal DC bombthrowers attacked Mark Udall on the Iraq war last year, absurdly lumping him with Joe Lieberman and branding him an “immoral coward” over a single vote, local observers scratched their heads and cried shame. “What the hell is this?” we asked. “Does this joker know anything about Mark Udall?”

As it happened, the only people who bought into the “Mark Udall is a warmonger” nonsense are the anarchists they’ll be cordoning off the Pepsi Center from in August. We know where Mark Udall stands on the Iraq war, which he opposed from the very beginning and is as dedicated as anyone to bringing to a responsible end.

And we know the alternative — as Udall’s camp drives home in today’s Denver Post:

Udall touts ’02 vote against “rush to war” in Schaffer dig

Votes against the 2002 Iraq war resolution — relatively rare as they were — have been political gold for those who cast them, and Democratic Senate candidate Mark Udall plans to take that currency to the bank.

Udall used the release Thursday of a scathing Senate Intelligence Committee report on the White House case for war to take a few swipes at his Republican opponent and telling voters that he had been right to oppose the war.

“Mark Udall used his independent judgment and sought out expert advice to see through the Bush administration’s manipulated intelligence and come to his own conclusions,” said Udall spokeswoman Tara Trujillo. She said Republican Bob Schaffer “simply rubber-stamped the Bush administration’s rush to war.”

Schaffer spokesman Dick Wadhams pointed out that the war resolution was bipartisan and said that even the United Nations believed that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein might have had weapons of mass destruction. Since leaving Congress after three terms in 2003, Schaffer has said he doesn’t regret his vote authorizing force in Iraq…

It’s about as unambiguous a contrast as you’ll ever find.

Cross-posted at ProgressNowAction