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Jack Reed on tap for Wednesday

RI's senior senator, who may or may not wind up in an Obama administration, is slated to get his DNC spotlight tomorrow night, shortly before 9 pm, talking up the theme of "securing America's future."

Meanwhile, a Washingtonian magazine profile (by the ProJo's John Mulligan) calls him a key to what the Democrats will do to end the war.

A self-deprecating son of blue-collar parents, Reed said that he was only “the concierge” on the tour of war zones that most observers say bolstered Obama’s foreign-policy and national-security credentials.

But insiders know that Reed, who had made 11 previous trips to Iraq, contributed not only to the hurried preparations for the trip but also to the long-term formulation of a Democratic policy suited to Obama’s argument that Afghanistan—not Iraq—should be the focus of US counterterrorism efforts.

The trip clarified Reed’s status as a leading Democrat who can speak to both sides of this country’s deepest political division since the Vietnam War. He has one foot in the camp that voted against the use of force in Iraq and criticizes the Bush administration’s conduct of the war. But he also has a foot in the camp that thinks a decent ending might yet be salvaged, especially in the wake of the Bush-Petraeus surge and signs of increased military and political skill on the part of the al-Maliki–led government.

“We are in it,” Reed said of the Iraq war this past spring. “We have to maximize our ability to come away with some kind of acceptable outcome.”

The Iraq-Afghanistan trip further fueled talk of Reed as a possible ticketmate or Cabinet pick for Obama—speculation that the Rhode Islander dismisses. Reed likely would be an influential Senate voice in an Obama administration, and he would get a respectful hearing from a President John McCain, too. The Republican senator from Arizona, a conspicuous advocate of the surge in Iraq, said of his longtime colleague on the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2005: “Jack travels to Iraq, he has friends in Iraq, and because of his many connections, Jack sees things in Iraq that a lot of us don’t get to see.”

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5 Comments

  • Michael said:

    The Warwick Beacon has a great front page article today on Chris Young, where Young shows how Jack Reed is really just a glorified puppet for his campaign contributors (it was good to find out that Reed has taken over 4 million dollars in campaign contributions this election cycle alone.) The article was great, pretty much the opposite of the crap I read in your column. The Providence Phoenix is kidding itself if it thinks it is bringing real news to Rhode Islanders. And so, Hey Ian Donnis - looks like Jack Reed isn't the only one who is bought and paid for.

    August 27, 2008 2:04 PM
  • Ian Donnis said:

    Michael, it's easy to posture with anonymity. I'd take your opinion a bit more seriously if you had the stones to include your (real) last name.

    August 27, 2008 3:57 PM
  • Christopher Young said:

    Instead of attacking Michael, why don't you try to bully me? I'm Christopher Young, and your paper did not write one article on my candidacy. You're too busy selling ads to strip clubs and kissing up to David Cicilline. What does he have on you? Do you get a rent break or a tax break from him or his associates on your building in Providence? Or ad revenue from strip club owned by corrupt politicians? Why don't you do an article on my write-in candidacy? Because you're a pathetic coward, Ian Donnis.

    September 12, 2008 12:32 PM
  • Ian Donnis said:

    Chris, you think it's bullying to ask someone to have the integrity to identify themself when they make a personal attack? Get real.

    News flash to Chris: in the primary, the most consequential election of the 2002 Providence mayoral race, the Phoenix endorsed Joe Paolino.

    News flash to Chris II: I broke the story of how Cicilline was trying to remake the city council in the 2006 election, and how one of his department heads was challenging a longtime incumbent. I have written other stories and blog posts that have taken a critical look at the mayor.

    You should check yourself. In what I recall as our first ever telephone interview some years back, you became inexplicably upset and lost your temper.

    September 13, 2008 12:50 PM
  • Chris Young said:

    David Cicilline was Joe Paolino's puppet. And yes, I do consider it bullying to harp on a person providing their last name while avoiding answering their questions. The fact is that you have not written one article on me in 7 elections. You never left a message for me. Why did you lie and say you did? Any journalist has the capability to call someone more than once. You are not a journalist. I received 26% of the vote for Mayor of Providence in 2006 and 11% of vote for US Senate in 2006, getting almost twice as many votes as Carl Sheeler, who spent $600,000.00 to run. I spent $50. I am running as a write in candidate for the United States Senate for the November 4th election. We just received 7,277 votes in the primary against Jack Reed, and those are just the votes they are acknowledging that we received. Four memory cartridges were "lost" in Providence alone in this election, and then suddenly re-appeared. Election fraud is not an issue that you will cover, however, since you are a coward and a puppet. Again, my phone number is 401-477-6178, and you can reach me anytime if you care to discuss these or other issues that you can find at my website, WhereToVote.com. Any reader of these postings can clearly see that you will not call me to do a story on our candidacy. This is another reason why the Providence Phoenix is losing so much in advertising revenue. People know a propoganda rag when they see it.

    September 13, 2008 3:43 PM

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