Dafydd ab Hugh shares the story of Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA), who, despite having been against the war in its beginning, believes the troops should be given more time to do their job. As a result of having done his own research, reaching an honest conclusion, and not toeing the party line, Baird finds himself under attack — from MoveOn.org.

It’s an interesting story, and I have a lot of respect for Baird. He had to know what this would do to his support from the more leftist wing of the Democratic party, and he still spoke up about it. Additionally, as Dafydd quotes later in his piece, when told that he was going to get “killed” for this, Baird corrected the hyperbole, saying that “[t]hey get killed in Iraq. I’m going to get criticized.” Whether one agrees with Baird or not (and, admittedly, this is easy for me to say since I happen to agree with his new stance), I think it takes a lot of guts for him to change his mind, be honest about the reasons, and stick to his guns even under heavy fire.