Kerry Team Settles Dispute With Kucinich Delegates Over Iraq
Originally published in the New York Times
Kerry Team Settles Dispute With Kucinich Delegates Over Iraq
By DAVID E. ROSENBAUM
Published: July 11, 2004
Senator John Kerry's representatives avoided a Democratic Party platform fight over Iraq on Saturday by persuading platform committee delegates supporting Representative Dennis J. Kucinich to withdraw their proposals for a quick withdrawal of United States combat troops from Iraq.
Instead, the committee agreed to present a platform to the Democratic convention in Boston this month that reflects Mr. Kerry's position. The statement of party principles promises to seek help from Western allies and Arab countries in bringing Iraq under control but says nothing about how that goal might be accomplished. And it pledges to remove American troops from Iraq "when appropriate."
The wording was worked out in negotiations between Mr. Kucinich's delegates and Mr. Kerry's supporters, who were led by Samuel R. Berger, who was President Bill Clinton's national security adviser.
Ana Dias, the chief sponsor of the pullout proposal, said Mr. Kucinich of Ohio, who was not here, had called off his forces.
Ms. Dias, a delegate from Hawaii who described herself as a peace advocate and political novice, said she was "terribly disappointed" not to get a vote on the issue but added, "We do want to be unified."
Mr. Berger characterized those he was negotiating with as "a group of people who want to win."
"We didn't give up anything," he said.
The latest New York Times/CBS News poll found that, 56 percent to 38 percent, people who identify themselves as Democrats say United States troops should "leave Iraq as soon as possible, even if Iraq is not completely stable" and not "stay in Iraq as long as it takes to make sure Iraq is a stable democracy."
But the platform to be adopted in Boston takes the second view. Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa, a platform committee chairman, said, "Platforms are about the future." It is clear, he said, that American troops must "stay there until the job is done."
The platform reflects Mr. Kerry's policy rather than President Bush's, Governor Vilsack said, by "recognizing the need for international partners" and does not take "the my-way-or-the-highway approach."
By avoiding a platform fight, Democrats escaped divisions like the one over civil rights that led to a walkout at the party's convention in 1948 and one over Vietnam that involved riots outside the 1968 convention in Chicago.
The platform committee meeting was held in the windowless ballroom of an Oceanside resort here. Although a few of the more than 100 committee members are prominent elected officials or people who held high office in the Clinton administration, most are rank-and-file party workers from across the country who are not well known nationally.
Mr. Kerry's representatives were so completely in charge that, in some respects, the meeting had the feel of a student council meeting, with portentous issues earnestly debated by people who have little influence.
On the other hand, at least on domestic policy, the platform serves the purpose of distinguishing Democrats from Republicans. It advocates raising the minimum wage, guarding Social Security and Medicare against privatization, enacting new environmental protections, making health insurance available to all, raising the taxes paid by the wealthy, advancing research using embryonic stem cells, banning the commercial sale of assault weapons and protecting abortion rights.
Nearly half of the platform is devoted to national security, much more prominence than these issues were given in recent platforms. The calls for overhauling intelligence agencies and rejecting Mr. Bush's "doctrine of unilateral pre-emption" drew no challenge.
The platform offers an "optimistic vision" for America at home and abroad, said Terry McAuliffe, the party chairman.
"Democrats are strong on national security," he said, and are "confident of winning the debate on who can keep America safe."
Subscribe to this blog's feed