On the October 22 edition of MSNBC Live, while discussing a letter Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) recently sent to Iowa Democrats explaining her support for an amendment that designated Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a “foreign terrorist organization,” Republican strategist and MSNBC analyst Joe Watkins asserted that “what she did now by sending out this letter was almost sound shades of John Kerry by saying, 'I was actually against it before I voted for it.' That's what she said in the letter.” In fact, Clinton stated in the letter that she originally opposed the measure “because it had language that President Bush could have used to justify military action against Iran,” and supported it only after “Senate Democrats reached across party lines to remove those sections.”

On September 20, Sens. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) submitted into the Congressional Record the original version of the amendment, which contained the following language:

(3) that it should be the policy of the United States to combat, contain, and roll back the violent activities and destabilizing influence inside Iraq of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its foreign facilitators such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and its indigenous Iraqi proxies;

(4) to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq, including diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military instruments, in support of the policy described in paragraph (3) with respect to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies[.]

These paragraphs were subsequently removed from the final version of the amendment before Clinton voted for its passage on September 26. Prior to the vote, Lieberman said:

LIEBERMAN: Because some of our colleagues thought paragraphs 3 and 4 of the sense of the Senate may have opened the door to some kind of military action against Iran, Senator Kyl and I have struck them from the amendment. That is not our intention. In fact, our intention is to increase the economic pressure on Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps so that we will never have to consider the use of the military to stop them from what they are doing to kill our soldiers.

During a March 2004 campaign appearance, then-Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) was asked about his vote against an $87 billion supplemental appropriation for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Kerry responded, “I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it,” and President Bush's re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee subsequently used this answer to characterize Kerry as a “flip-flopper.” Kerry had co-sponsored and supported an amendment to the supplemental appropriation bill which provided the $87 billion but paid for it by rolling back some of Bush's tax cuts. After the amendment failed on a procedural vote, Kerry voted against the supplemental appropriation. Kerry discussed his vote during a September 29, 2004, interview on ABC's Good Morning America:

DIANE SAWYER (co-host): The one thing the Bush administration has played more than any probably, which is, I voted against the $87 billion after I voted for it.

KERRY [video clip]: I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.

SAWYER: And they say this is classic about why you're --

KERRY: No, that's not classic at all. It just was a very inarticulate way of saying something, and I had one of those inarticulate moments late in the evening when I was dead tired in the primaries and I didn't say something very clearly. But it reflects the truth of the position, which is I thought to have the wealthiest people in America share the burden of paying for that war. It was a protest. Sometimes you have to stand up and be counted and that's what I did.

From Clinton's letter to Iowa Democrats:

Several weeks ago, I voted with 75 other Senators for a sense of the Senate resolution to declare Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. Let me tell you why.

I was in the Senate that day and was about to vote “no” on this legislation because it had language that President Bush could have used to justify military action against Iran. Working together, Senate Democrats reached across party lines to remove those sections. Only then did I and a lot of other Democrats vote for the resolution in order to pressure Iran by clearing the way for sanctions and pushing the President to get them to the negotiating table.

From the 2 pm ET hour of the October 22 edition of MSNBC Live:

MONICA NOVOTNY (anchor): Moving on to politics, Hillary Clinton's Democratic rivals continue to criticize her for her recent vote to label the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group. They're saying that her vote essentially gives President Bush a green light to attack Iran. Clinton denies that, and over the weekend she even sent a letter to supporters explaining the vote, saying, quote, “Let me be clear on Iran -- I am opposed to letting President Bush take any military action against that country without full congressional approval.” Joe Watkins is a Republican strategist and an MSNBC analyst, and David Brown is a Democratic strategist. Good to talk to you both.

WATKINS: Good to talk to you too, Monica.

NOVOTNY: All right, Joe, I'll start with you. Why would Hillary Clinton send out this letter now?

WATKINS: Well, of course she wants to appeal to her base in the Democratic Party and certainly those on the left. She really doesn't have to apologize for this, Monica. I mean, what she did was the right thing. She said she agreed with the president and with many others around the world that the Revolutionary Guard in Iran is a terrorist organization. And that's true and correct. But what she did now by sending out this letter was almost sound shades of John Kerry by saying, “I was actually against it before I voted for it.” That's what she said in the letter.