Winograd: Primary challenge is pushing Harman to the left

Rep. Jane Harman came out pretty strongly against the troop escalation in Afghanistan this week, going so far as to compare the effort there to the Vietnam War.

To longtime Harman-watchers, that sounded uncharacteristically dovish. Marcy Winograd, who is running against Harman in the Democratic primary, thinks she has an explanation.

"My candidacy has prompted Jane Harman to take a closer look at how we're spending our taxpayer money," Winograd told me today. "I think she's much more circumspect as a result of my primary challenge."

With Harman minimizing the contrast between herself and her anti-war challenger, what is Winograd to do?

Well, a few things. For one, she co-authored a resolution, which was passed by the California Democratic Party Executive Board, calling for an end to the "occupation and air war" in Afghanistan. For another, she is attacking Harman for voting earlier this year for a $100 billion war funding bill.

"She has voted to escalate the war," Winograd said. "Last spring, she voted $100 billion to escalate the war in Afghanistan. It's only when she is facing a primary challenge that she sounds dovish."

That line of attack was irksome enough to Harman that she brought it up unprompted in an interview earlier this week, and mentioned Winograd by name -- a rarity. "That was a supplemental," Harman said. "It was substantially the cost of winding down the war in Iraq."

Asked if she would vote against funding for the troop increase when it comes up next spring, Harman said she would have to wait to see what Congress is asked to do.

For more on how President Obama's troop decision is playing out in Democratic primaries across the country, check out this story from Politico.