Congressman's video blunder shows Democrats split on war

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A video of Rep. David R. Obey criticizing anti-war Democrats as "idiot liberals" circulated on Capitol Hill yesterday, with Republicans using it as an example of Democrats' split over the Iraq war.

The 20-term Wisconsin Democrat, who voted against authorizing force in Iraq in 2002, was caught in an unflattering light on tape by the Occupation Project, an anti-war group making the rounds on the Hill.

Yesterday, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee apologized for yelling at the group and said his outburst was "another example of a country needlessly and painfully divided on a war that I have opposed from the beginning."

When members of the group, including the mother of an Iraq veteran, asked during a six-minute impromptu conversation if he supported cutting troop funding as a way to end the war in Iraq, Mr. Obey exploded.

"We're trying to use the supplemental to end the war ... it's time these idiot liberals understand that," he said. "There's a big difference between funding the troops and ending the war."

Mr. Obey was responding to Tina Richards' question about whether he would oppose the more than $100 billion supplemental spending bill that funds the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Absolutely not. I'm the sponsor of it for heaven sakes," he said, later asserting that the supplemental bill "ends the war."

"If that isn't good enough for you, then you're smoking something that ain't legal," Mr. Obey said.

"No I'm not, sir," a man accompanying Mrs. Richards responded.

The encounter started off on the wrong foot, as Mrs. Richards told a flustered Mr. Obey she'd left in his office a poem written by her son, a Marine just called for a third deployment in Iraq. It went downhill from there, with Mr. Obey pointing his finger, raising his voice and using the word "hell" at least five times.