Rep. Jim Walsh's break with the White House on the war, diaried yesterday here, was obviously not an overnight decision but had been planned for some time, with his trip to Iraq over the weekend obviously just a formality. The headline on today's Syracuse Post-Standard is My Iraq Journal, by Jim Walsh, in which the nine-term Congressman lays out in full detail (perhaps deeply annoying and disingenuous, to Democrats) his rationale.
Walsh, of course, is facing a second serious challenge for his seat from Dan Maffei in NY-25, so his political reasons for doing this are pretty transparent. The guy desperately wants to keep his job. However, this article is worth reading only because it shows how the mind of a rank-and-file Republican works, and also probably reflects the attitudes of many Americans who initially supported the war.