Voinovich's Iraq Position: Troop Withdrawal Good, Deadlines Bad

Ohio's other United States Senator, George Voinovich, gave an interview to WOSU radio in which he came out for the Bush Administration developing a plan to withdraw from Iraq, but, according to WOSU, he will not vote for a deadline. He says that he believes that a deadline of one year would be disastrous.

This is classic Voinovich: Do just enough to look like you are listening to Ohio's voters, but, when the chips are down, support Bubble-Boy's Iraq policy. This way he gets the praise of moderately conservative Ohio newspapers like the Plain Dealer and the Columbus Dispatch for being realistic about Iraq, but doesn't earn the animosity of the wing-nuts who vote in Ohio's Republican primaries.

This is always the problem that Cuyahoga County Republicans have in Ohio politics. Since they are from Cuyahoga County, they tend to be much more reasonable than some of the downstate Republicans. They have to be because Cuyahoga County, even in its Republican areas, will only tolerate a certain amount of right-wing craziness. This tendency toward reasonableness makes them hard for Democrats to beat in general elections, but makes them vulnerable in Republican primaries.

Look what happened, for example, to Jim Petro. Here he was a successful state-wide vote getter, a winner of races for Ohio Attorney General and Ohio State Auditor, a proven vote getter in the biggest Democratic county in the State, and he gets whacked in the primary by a right-wing nut job named Ken Blackwell. You can be sure that Voinovich took note of that election, especially if he is thinking about running for re-election in 2010.

Iraq, though, is different than other problems Voinovich has faced in his political career. The cost in human suffering and financial treasure to the United States is high compared to the importance that most of us who aren't oil company executives attach to the country. Voinovich's political balancing act may come to a crashing end over this issue if he decides to run in 2010.