Excerpts from the Kerry-O'Reilly debate

Excerpts from the exchange between US Senator John F. Kerry and Democratic primary challenger Ed O'Reilly over Kerry's vote for the Iraq war:

O’Reilly: If we ever use military force, it has to be because there’s an imminent threat against our country. We have a Department of Defense, not Offense, and it’s really important that we know before we get into a military situation that we have all of the facts. ...

Kerry: The president had promised that we would go to war as a last resort, that we would only do it with a coalition, that we would exhaust the remedies of the United Nations. I accepted that. That was the mistake, believing the Bush Administration. ...

O’Reilly: The quote from [former Kerry consultant] Robert Shrum’s book, "And this was where Kerry wanted to get my opinion -- would he be a viable general election candidate if he was on the small minority of senators who voted 'no’?" That should not be part of the decision-making process. You have to vote as a United States senator based on your conscience, and on what you believe. That discussion should not even take place. ...

Kerry: The fact is, with respect to that kind of a vote, you just don’t do that based on any political consideration. You can take in the input on it of it, but that’s not how you vote. … To win the nomination the ideal thing to have done was be the anti-war candidate, which is what Howard Dean was. For months people wrote me off because of that vote. I voted the way I voted ‘cause I thought it met the national security interests of our country.

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