Once again, somethings are not as simple as somepeople make them appear.

I am often berated for not disowning John Kerry because he did not back the enormous $87 billion dollar spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan. (Naturaly, Kerry's "I voted against it before I voted for it" doesn't help. It is yet another example of Kerry's lackluster skills as a straddler. Kevin Drum has a great post on that topic.) I try to explain to my more conservative acquaintances that there were different versions of the bill. They accuse me of obfuscating. Credit the Daily Howler with pointing me to fact that Bush threatened to veto one of the versions of the bill. It should provide the proper ammo for rebuffing the attacks; it moves the argument from (1) irrefutable evidence of anti-Americanism because Kerry did it to (2) need for further exploration because Bush could never do anything wrong.

Here is the article:

The Bush administration threatened for the first time Tuesday to veto an $87
billion package for Iraq and Afghanistan if Congress converts any Iraqi rebuilding money into loans.