After Hillary Clinton's top aide Howard Wolfson lashed out at him over remarks he made in a New York church on Sunday, John Edwards has responded, and the response amounts to: "I didn't call out Hillary specifically (but if the shoe fits...)"
Edwards called on Congress to take action and try to stop the escalation in Iraq. The fact that the Clinton camp obviously saw that as a direct attack speaks volumes. Wolfson said Edwards was making "political attacks on Democrats" -- by urging them to do everything they can to prevent Bush from sending more troops to Iraq? The majority of the American people want Bush to start bringing troops home, not sending more. So why are Clinton's people so "oversensitive" about this?
The video of Edwards on CNN's Situation Room can be viewed here.
The reality is that Clinton now is getting pressure from "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party," and her political calculation is that she has to keep up her triangulation as a "hawk" in order to have a chance in a general election. Her "escalated" response to Edwards' remarks, which didn't specifically target her, reveal that she just doesn't believe she can take the stands that Edwards can take and still be viable. That's a remarkable admission of weakness, considering the general public opinion is so strongly anti-escalation. It makes you wonder what the polls would have to look like in order for her to risk taking a stand.
This is all it took to elicit such a defensive reaction (from CNN on Tuesday):
BLITZER: Here is what you said Sunday in New York City. I want to play this little clip.
Listen to this.
EDWARDS: Sure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EDWARDS: Speak out and stop this escalation now. You have the power, members of Congress, to prohibit this president from spending any money to escalate this war. Use that power.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
EDWARDS: Use it now.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: As you know, that was widely seen as a slap at Senator Hillary Clinton, who has refused to say she's ready to use the power of the purse, congressional authority, to go ahead and stop funding an increase, an escalation, or a surge, in the war.
Did you see that as a direct attack against her?
EDWARDS: I wasn't, Wolf, thinking about anybody in particular. It was directed at members of Congress who, I believe, as a matter of conscience, should stop this president from escalating this war and from continuing in a long series of really tragic mistakes that -- that he's made in Iraq.
And, as I said in the clip you just ran, Congress has the power to stop this escalation. It's been done before in Lebanon, in Colombia, and toward the end of the Vietnam War. I mean, there is an historical precedent for it. And there's clearly constitutional authority for it.
It's time for members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, by the way, not just Democrats, but those who know, in good conscience and principle, that this war should not be escalated, to speak out and to take action.
H/T to NCDem Amy: YouTube video of the entire speech at Riverside Church on Sunday