Post by POA on Jul 12, 2004 1:43:18 GMT -5
Published on Sunday, July 11, 2004 by the New York Times
Kerry Team Settles Dispute With Kucinich Delegates Over Iraq
by David Rosenbaum
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - 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 to accomplish that goal.
The critical paragraph was worked out in negotiations between Mr. Kucinich's delegates and Mr. Kerry's supporters, led by Samuel R. Berger, who was President Bill Clinton's national security adviser.
It pledges to remove American troops "when appropriate so that the military support needed by a sovereign Iraqi government will no longer be seen as the direct continuation of an American military presence."
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 platform retains a sentence that the antiwar delegates originally found objectionable stating that "people of good will disagree about whether America should have gone to war in Iraq."
The latest New York Times/CBS News poll found that, by a margin of 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 it was clear that American troops must "stay there until the job is done."
The platform reflects Mr. Kerry's policy rather than President Bush's, Mr. Vilsack said, by "recognizing the need for international partners."
By avoiding a platform fight, Democrats escaped divisions like the one over civil rights that led to a walkout at the convention in 1948 and the one over Vietnam that involved riots outside the 1968 convention in Chicago.
Although a few of the more than 100 platform committee members are prominent elected officials or people who held high office in the Clinton administration, most are rank-and-file party workers who are not widely known.
Mr. Kerry's representatives were so completely in charge that, in some respects, the meeting here had the feel of a student council meeting, with portentous issues earnestly debated by people who have little influence. Unlike the situation in parliamentary democracies, party platforms in this country are not binding on anyone, not even the president.
But at least on domestic policy, the document serves to distinguish 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.
The Republican platform, to be drafted next month, will almost certainly take opposing stances.
In a conference call with reporters on Friday, Ed Gillespie, the Republican Party chairman, said the Democratic platform masked Mr. Kerry's true record and policy proposals. It portrays "a more moderate and centrist image" than displayed in the campaign, Mr. Gillespie said.
And many of the speeches here were unlike what would be expected at a Republican gathering. For example, another committee chairman, Antonio Villaraigosa, a Los Angeles city councilman, spoke of how much he personally had benefited from affirmative action programs.
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," Mr. McAuliffe said, and "confident of winning the debate on who can keep America safe."
