Former Sen. Bob Kerrey, who is running to reclaim his seat after serving for most of the past decade as head of the New School, has come out strongly against war on Iran. Here’s the video of his statement:

http://www.bobkerrey.com/action/invading-iran?utm_source=sp4511948&utm_medium=e&sc=sp4511948&refcode=sp4511948&ta=

This deserves some notice for a few reasons. First, Kerrey, who was highly decorated for his service in Vietnam, was an Iraq War hawk and even served on the notorious Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. Second, he’s a moderate Democrat identified more with the interventionist wing of the part than the more non-interventionist and anti-war McGovernite wing. Third, he’s running to replace retiring Sen. Ben Nelson, perhaps the most conservative member of the Senate Democratic caucus and a reliable supporter of AIPAC-backed legislation and resolutions.

I think his willingness to take such a strong position so early in what is likely to be a tough campaign for him in a very conservative state is due to several factors, not least his close ties to the Pentagon, the government bureaucracy that appears most strongly opposed to attacking Iran, be it by Israel or the U.S. itself. But I also think public opinion, of which an experienced politician like Kerrey has a pretty good sense, has been moving against the idea of war against Iran (although there are new recent polls to sustain that notion) since Israeli and Republican saber-rattling hit a high back in early March with the AIPAC Convention. I also think the pushback by much of the foreign-policy and military establishment against what Obama called the “loose talk of war” at that time has also had a major impact. And the fact that there have been relatively few denunciations of the the Istanbul talks in mid-April by anyone other than Netanyahu and a familiar clutch of neo-conservative hawks here also suggests that war fever has been significantly reduced, at last for now. But Kerrey’s strong position on this issue is one very interesting straw in the wind.