Iraq rhetoric in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race has heated up in recent days, with DFL candidate Mike Ciresi repeating that he is the only candidate who opposed the war from the beginning and incumbent Norm Coleman changing the subject to Iran and Israel.  DFLer Al Franken has found himself in the crosshairs of both, while trying to keep on the political offensive instead of explaining.

What does all that rhetoric mean?Coleman:  “It wouldn’t be Israel alone against Iran.”  Through his surrogates and media operation, Norm Coleman has tried to push Franken on a potential military conflict with Iran.  Hypotheticals aside, the Bush Administration has made their desire to change the Tehran regime for some time, and the Israel question is an opportunity for Coleman to change the subject from his very real support for a very unpopular and continuing conflict in Iraq. 

It is interesting to note, however, that Coleman is pushing Franken — his fellow Jew in the race and thus the most likely to have a visceral connection to the Jewish state — on supporting Israel and not Ciresi.  But that’s another column altogether.

Ciresi:  I opposed this war from the beginning, and Al did not.  Ciresi exercised a strong sense of the future in opposing the war from the beginning.  Franken has said in speech and in print that he believed Colin Powell when he went before the United Nations and made the (now known to be incorrect) case that the Hussein regime had weapons of mass destruction. 

There’s an important rhetorical question to parse out of the battle over who is more anti-war:  Are “The War” and “The Occupation” separate entities and eras in the Bush Administration’s adventure in Mesapotamia?  If one defines “The War” as the period in which American armed forces rolled over their Iraqi opponents and drove the Baath government from power, and defines “The Occupation” as the period in which we became a surrogate police force on the streets of Baghdad, then Franken’s rhetorical posture fits the situation a bit better — admit that I supported the war, and oppose the occupation.

On the other hand, if America’s entire involvement in Iraq is “The War” then Ciresi’s charge that Al Franken flip-flopped on the topic carries a bit more weight.  It remains to be seen which definition will be a winning one heading toward the DFL endorsement.