I favored the invasion of Iraq after the first Gulf War. I think we had a clear moral mandate during the first Gulf War to invade Baghdad and take out Saddam. He presented a clear threat to the region. He had gassed the Kurdish people in northern Iraq and had invaded a foreign country. I did not agree with the methodology of the current invasion because the Powell Doctrine was not followed. We did not invade with overwhelming force — i.e., not providing adequate troop levels during the initial occupation, and we entered without a clear exit strategy — two essential planks of the Powell Doctrine.

4. In your opinion, what should the U.S. do now in the Iraqi War? (Please be specific, should we withdraw immediately, set a timeline for withdrawal, stay the course as President Bush advocates?)

The United States needs a clear and pragmatic exit strategy from the war in Iraq. Politicization of the war on the right or the left does not help us reach a solution. Both sides are guilty of trying to make political advantage out of the war. I view our soldiers' commitment and sacrifice as sacred, which means we need to use pragmatic approaches to stabilize the region, to get our troops redeployed and to allow the Iraqis to govern themselves. I believe these solutions will more practically emanate from trained military professionals and not civilian partisan politicians. Many in the officer corps have been marginalized when they have advised for increased troop levels and strategic allocation of our forces. We should be deferential to the military professionals to get the region stabilized and get our troops redeployed in a reasonable manner.

5. Should Democrats take control of the U.S. Senate after the November elections, predict three things that will happen over the next two years because of the power shift.

1. Ethics reform. We will elect a large freshman class of representatives in Congress because people are tired of business as usual in Washington. We will see new ethics reform legislation passed as a result of this change in the constituency of Congress.

2. Budget deficits will decrease. Borrow and spend politics have caused the deficit to balloon and will burden the next generation with a heavy debt load if we don't to stop this irresponsible spending.

3. There will be long-needed oversight hearings on issues ranging from the Abramoff scandal to the high price of oil.

6. Considering that the U.S. budget will be in deficit again, do you favor or oppose making the current tax cuts permanent?

I oppose making tax cuts for multi-millionaires permanent. We are in a time of war and in a time of record high deficit spending. I oppose leaving our debts to our children and grandchildren. We should pay as we go.