General Discussion

no one should speak about Iraq because it could hurt in the midterms. Finding links from 2006 is difficult. What I will point to is the way Kerry and Feingold were treated when their amendment was brought up by the Republicans for debate. You can find it in the Senate record -- where Reid actually gave DEMOCRATIC time in prime time to Joe Lieberman who trashed Kerry and Feingold personally in addition to stating his position.

Here is a link that explains the split - http://www.nbcnews.com/id/13456702/ns/politics/t/democratic-fissures-senates-iraq-debate/#.Wr5SkojwY54 Here is a Daily Kos diary that described how Kerry was attacked. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/8/31/378899/-

June 2006 was yet another defense appropriation battle in the Senate. The Republicans ran the chamber with a healthy majority, and there was no doubt that the funding would pass. However, the anti-war sentiment out in the country found a voice in two Democratic Senators -- John Kerry and Russ Feingold -- who had put together an amendment that would set a timetable for withdrawal. It was a radical plan at the time, and the Democratic leadership was very angry that Kerry and Feingold insisted that their amendment be debated and voted upon. Many Democrats went to the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other publications, and said that John Kerry was a "big embarrassment", that his plan went too far, and that it could cost them in the midterm elections. Not only that, Harry Reid made sure that the Kerry/Feingold amendment would be debated after the evening news, safely late in the night, where no one would notice the plan. In 2007, this is all water under the bridge, seeing that the Kerry/Feingold amendment is now the Reid Resolution which at last count received 54 votes in July. It was an idea which needed time to gain support, as it only garnered 13 votes that June.

There was a NYT magazine article that described in detail the behind the scenes, but I can not find a current link - it is 13 years ago!

Before that, when Kerry returned to the Senate, there was a whisper campaign -- that spread to both DU and Daily Kos - suggesting that Harry Reid was angry that Kerry continued to speak as a Democratic leader. (Note A Democratic leader, not THE Democratic leader.) Search Daily Kos for 2005 or 2006. Kos himself made several posts that blasted Kerry whenever he accepted a chance to speak - claiming that he was not Reid's choice to do so.

My guess is you were possibly less interested in the post 2004 election or you agreed with the overwhelming sentiment on DU concerning Kerry. The fact is that both powerful Democrats and people on message boards were as willing to tell him to go away as they are now with Clinton.

As to hitting them when a statement they made was seen as potentially harmful, Hillary herself stabbed Kerry in the back calling his misreading of a joke (leaving out "us&quot "inappropriate". I will always hold it against her that she did this. It would have been fair game had she simply attacked him as having made a gaffe and that it was unhelpful. Calling it inappropriate backed the Republicans who said he criticized the troops in Iraq, which he absolutely didn't and wouldn't do. Inappropriate is a very strong word with moral implications. I don't think any of the Democrats have called her words inappropriate.