Timing Entwined War Vote, Election: "the vote paving the way for the second war with Iraq came in mid-October of 2002 — at the height of an election campaign in which Republicans were systematically portraying Democrats as weak on national security.
... Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said recently that a delay might have prompted more Democrats to vote no by increasing the time available to study the evidence for war and by dissipating the political pressures surrounding the decision.
"There was a stampede to vote on this," Kennedy said. "A lot of our people got caught up in it.""
- posted by geoff @ #