Lincoln Chafee Labels Clinton a "Bush Enabler"

The AP reports today that former senator Lincoln Chafee in his new book criticizes Hillary Clinton and other Democrats who voted for the Iraq war, calling them "Bush enablers" who were duped by the administration. Chafee, the only Republican senator to vote against the war, writes in Against The Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President:

Being wrong about sending Americans to kill and be killed, maim and be maimed, is not like making a punctuation mistake in a highway bill.... They argue that the president duped them into war, but getting duped does not exactly recommend their leadership. Helping a rogue president start an unnecessary war should be a career-ending lapse of judgment, in my view.

They were afraid that Republicans would label them soft in the post-September 11 world, and when they acted on that political self-interest, they helped the president send thousands of Americans and uncounted innocent Iraqis to their doom.

Chafee, who switched his party affiliation from Republican to independent in 2007, has endorsed Barack Obama.