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Iraq war resolution colors Lautenberg-Andrews race

When President Bush was trolling for Democrats in Congress to support the 2002 Iraqi war resolution, he found a willing partner in U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews.

When President Bush was trolling for Democrats in Congress to support the 2002 Iraqi war resolution, he found a willing partner in U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews.

The Camden County Democrat, now running an upstart primary campaign against U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, not only lobbied his fellow House Democrats but was a coauthor of the October 2002 resolution. He also was among the elected leaders in the Rose Garden as the president thanked Congress for supporting the war.

With superior financial resources for television and mail advertising in the New York media market, where Andrews is not well known, Lautenberg's campaign could severely damage Andrews by using his early support of the war against him, analysts say.

It may not matter that Andrews has changed his mind and strongly advocates a quick end to the war, even writing a withdrawal plan. It also may not matter that on the campaign trail in 2002, Lautenberg said he supported the war and would have voted for the resolution. (Soon after rejoining the Senate, Lautenberg became a staunch opponent of the war.)

"The war resolution is something that's going to sandbag him [Andrews] as he tries to make this case," said Peter Woolley, head of the PublicMind Poll at Fairleigh Dickinson University, who has polled extensively on New Jersey voters' negative attitudes toward the war. But Woolley added that Democrats voting in the June 3 primary were most likely to favor a candidate who pledges - as Andrews has - to end the war.

That could make the war vote a wash for Andrews. Still, this race could be a miniature version of the Democratic presidential primary, in which Sen. Barack Obama has used his early opposition to the war as a wedge against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Although Clinton now opposes the war, Obama is using her vote in favor of the 2002 war resolution as proof that he is more against it than she is.

In an interview, Andrews said: "Frank Lautenberg has the same record I do" on the war.

"The record is he was asked the question, and he said he would have voted for it," Andrews said, referring to Lautenberg's 2002 campaign against Republican Doug Forrester.

Lautenberg said yesterday that there are "enormous differences" between their records on the war.

As a candidate in 2002 without access to the intelligence that members of Congress have, Lautenberg said, "I saw the stories in the news and thought it might be a good idea to get rid of Saddam."

Once inside the Senate in 2003, "I voted against funding, and Rob Andrews led the parade for this. He helped write the legislation. He was the one who sent the troops into Iraq. He was the one who supported the president's initiatives."

Lautenberg dismissed Andrews opposition to the war as "just a political thing" aimed at pleasing voters.

Andrews recalled that his opposition began in the summer of 2004 when he spoke to the Gloucester County Chamber of Commerce and was "very critical" of the war. In October 2005, he spoke against the war at Seton Hall University.

As his feelings on the war changed, he said, "we frankly made a deliberate decision and put out a statement each time."

By November 2006, he had outlined a plan for withdrawing from Iraq.

In a 2002 interview with The Inquirer detailing his support of the war, Andrews said, "When you boil down the arguments of a lot of people against this, it comes down to this: They think the probability [of an Iraqi-inspired attack] is not great enough to justify going to war. I think that is a completely misguided conclusion."

He went on to say that "the day after Saddam Hussein is removed from power . . . there will be two developments: The first will be great rejoicing by people who live in Iraq, great hope that the lives of the Iraqi people will be better. The second will be a grave reassessment in Tehran as to the course Iran has followed . . . with respect to harboring terrorists."

His expectations have not been met, which is why, Andrews said, he now opposes the war.

For Andrews to survive the campaign attacks, which have already begun, Woolley said he must succeed where Clinton had failed.

"Clinton has not been able to come out with a very simple and convincing response, and Andrews needs to take a page from her failure and give a very simple, convincing response" to questions about his votes, Woolley said. "You cannot go on with some lengthy explanation here."