Clinton Cites Hagel To Defend Her 2002 Iraq Vote -- But Is She Right?

he New York Times checks up on Hillary Clinton's recent invocations of Chuck Hagel and finds the record doesn't match the rhetoric:

Clinton repeated the claim Sunday during an interview on "Meet the Press," saying "Chuck Hagel, who helped to draft the resolution, said it was not a vote for war." . . . But the talking point appears to misconstrue the facts....

...For more on Clinton and her Iraq vote, see Ambassador Richard Holbrooke's comments to the Monitor, Clinton's response when she was here and Joe Lieberman's account when he was here. For what it's worth, a New York Times magazine piece on Hagel nearly two years ago suggested that Hagel, who voted for the Iraq resolution despite strong misgivings, had persuaded himself that doing so could help Colin Powell (and thus reduce the chance of war). Indeed, Hagel's speech explaining his vote was much more pessimistic than Clinton's.

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