Here is a particularly dishonest portion of Levin's column:
Today, some of us are facing the same dilemma that Lincoln faced: Do you fund the troops fighting a war that you oppose?
I voted against going to war in Iraq; I have consistently challenged the administration's conduct of the war; and I have long fought to change our policy there. But I cannot vote to stop funding the troops while they are in harm's way, conducting dangerous missions such as those recently begun north of Baghdad. .I agree with Lincoln, who decided "that the Administration had done wrong in getting us into the war, but that the Officers and soldiers who went to the field must be supplied and sustained at all events."
(Emphasis supplied.) To describe to you how misleading Levin's quotation is I think we need to be provided a fuller measure of Lincoln's quote, which is from a letter he wrote to Joseph Medill, the publisher of the Chicago Tribune in 1858, when Lincoln was a candidate for the Senate and was being charged with "abandoning the troops" (the more things change the more they stay the same.) This was not Lincoln standing on the floor of the Congress making a speech at the time. This was Lincoln the politician, 10 years later, trying to repel smears against him. And even then, Lincoln was NOT presented with the choices Levin faces. Here is the letter, in pertinent part:
. . . I was in Congress but one term. I was a candidate when war broke out- and then I took the ground, from which I never varied from, that the Administration had done wrong to get us into war, but that the Officers and Soldiers who went into the field must be supplied and sustained at all events. I was elected in August 1846 . . . but did not take my seat until December 1847. In the interval, all the battles had been fought and the war substantially ended though our Army was still in Mexico and the treaty of peace was not finally concluded until May 30, 1848.
. . . [A] man named John Henry was named to fill the vacancy [of the prior Congressman who was holding the seat Lincoln was to win] and so came into Congress before I did. . . . A bill corresponding with great accuracy to that described by the Times [the paper accusing Lincoln of "abandoning the troops"] passed the House of Representatives and was voted against by John Henry. . . .
What do we discern from all this? That this is hardly Lincoln at the height of poltical courage or wisdom. This is Lincoln fighting against a negative political attack 11 years after the fact. It is dishonest of Levin to pretend this was some principled stand Lincoln took. Lincoln himself says he NEVER took office until after the fighting in Mexico was ended! He never faced that hard vote.
But beyond that, Levin is misleading in arguing that a vote in the first year of the war would somehow be equivalent to the situation faced by the Congress today with President Bush. Through the duration of the Mexican War, the congress was in the hands of the pro-Mexican War Democratic Party. The Whigs could do nothing to stop the war. Indeed, the war ended in less than 2 years, ending fomrally in May 1848. As Lincoln wrote, he basically had nothing to vote on.
Lincoln wrote many things at many times about many subjects. I would suggest that people not look too closely at the transcripts of the Lincoln-Douglas debates that occurred on the Southern portion of Illinois. I have said this many times -- Abraham Lincoln was a poltician, doing and saying what politicians have to. Except in moments when they must stand on principle, to achieve their greatness.
Lincoln's moments of political calculation and shrewdness are not to be confused with his moments of greatness.
In this column, Carl Levin shows neither political shrewdness nor greatness. He demonstrates his feet of clay - a lack of political courage and imagination.
It is clear that Carl Levin will never be an extraordinary leader. This is no surprise. But I am surprised that Levin stooped to the misleading tactics of the Right. For this invocation of Lincoln for these disingenuous purpose did not start with Levin. It started on the Right. Levin shames himself by adopting it.
