What the Seattle Times said:
Legislation that passed the House last week would begin redeploying troops within 120 days and complete transition to a limited military presence by April 1.
Republican Congressman Dave Reichert of Washington voted with the president, and missed a big opportunity to distinguish himself. This is the direction our country has to take.
[…] There is no good time to get out of Iraq, but once we know we must leave, there is no excuse to put off the decision. Delay is also a decision, the wrong one with enormous costs in human life.
From now until November 2008, Darcy Burner will be relentlessly attacked as lacking the experience necessary to serve this region in Congress, but there should be little doubt how Burner would have voted on the House redeployment bill. She would have exercised the judgment to vote against the president, and with the values of her district. She would have displayed the leadership necessary to start bringing our troops home now, not months from now, and only when political expediency makes it absolutely necessary.
I hope the Times’ editors remember this before they sit down to write their next Reichert endorsement.
UPDATE:
Postman interviews Reichert on Iraq:
Reichert still firmly supports President Bush. The congressman is a former sheriff. When he talks about the war he frequently relates it to police work. And in this case he sees parallels between the criticism aimed at Bush and his most famous case, the hunt for the Green River Killer.
“During Green River we were just hammered on by the press and the community and I got hammered by people and criticized and I just feel some of the same pressures are being applied to the president.”
It should be noted that it took 18 years to catch the Green River Killer, even though they had enough evidence to make Gary Ridgeway a prime suspect early on.
That Reichert references his law enforcement career in response to every question is pathetic. That once again people are dying while he hamfistedly continues his investigation is a tragedy. Why do voters constantly reward such mediocrity?