Elections 2002 Endorsements: A vote for Waxman is a vote for war

Because congressional incumbent Henry Waxman voted to give
President Bush the authority to use force against Iraq, his
reelection campaigning cannot be endorsed by the Daily Bruin.
Unfortunately, his opponent, Republican Tony Goss, would likely
have done the same, making it impossible to endorse either one.

Waxman, along with 81 other House Democrats, voted in favor of
giving President Bush the authority to use force against Iraq
regardless of whether Bush had U.N. support on the issue.

This reckless policy flies in the face of the Constitution and
many of his constituents’ wishes. The power to declare war is
granted solely to Congress by the Constitution, but it has
essentially been signed over to President Bush by this
legislation.

Moreover, Waxman regularly wins elections with nearly 70 percent
of the vote and was not obligated to support Bush in order to win
voter approval. Therefore, Waxman voted for what he truly felt: an
opinion that does not correspond with the significant anti-war
sentiment on campus.

Students should not support candidates that vote for resolutions
that could send them or their relatives to fight a war they do not
believe in.

To his credit, Waxman has done a great deal of good. He held the
first congressional hearing on AIDS in the 1980s, was a primary
sponsor of the1990 Clean Air Act, has campaigned for nursing home
reform and has continuously attacked tobacco companies.

But with every term comes a new issue, and the most important
issue over the next two years will be the potential war with Iraq
and the expansion of the war on terrorism. Despite his success in
pursuing progressive domestic policies in the past, Waxman’s
wanton position on the Iraq issue should be enough justification
for students to try and oust him from office.