KEAN BEATS AROUND THE BUSH ON IRAQ IN N.J. TUSSLE
2006-10-18
Source: New York Post
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rss feedLess than two weeks after they butted heads in a debate at a New York television studio, the two candidates for U.S. Senate from New Jersey were at it again last night in a 90-minute radio encounter that opened with a lengthy exchange on the war in Iraq.
Republican state Sen. Tom Kean Jr. repeatedly refused to say whether he would vote to authorize sending U.S. troops into Iraq if he had intelligence information that was not available when the war began. Democratic incumbent Robert Menendez, then a U.S. representative, voted against the resolution authorizing the start of the war and has called for a timely withdrawal of U.S. troops.
After the debate, which aired live on Millennium Radio Network stations, Kean was asked again and again to articulate his position on authorizing the war, and each time refused to answer the question directly.
"At the time, the case was made for the war in Iraq on national security grounds," Kean said when asked by debate moderator Eric Scott whether he would have voted for the war "knowing what you know now."
Eventually, Scott moved on, but not before noting, "OK, you're not going to answer that question."
Menendez has throughout the caustic campaign tried to link Kean with the policies of the Bush administration. President Bush's popularity hovers at around 35 percent in New Jersey.
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