Over the weekend, Representative Vern Ehlers was briefly cited in an article titled "Michigan Congressmen divided on early departure from Iraq" that was written by Sarah Kellogg of Booth Newspapers. The article is framed in terms of how various analysts--including a political consultant and a university professor--believe that the Iraq War will impact the 2008 elections. While it does point out that Michigan's Republican representatives support the Bush administration's request for more troops and time in Iraq and that the state's Democratic delegation opposes a "hard line" approach of cutting funding for the war, it places little attention on what each member of Congress has said specifically about Iraq.

Ehlers is cited in the article assessing what he believes the impact of the war will be on the 2008 election. Ehlers says that "the country is really divided about the war, but not divided as much as during the Vietnam War" and that he thinks "it will have an impact in the election, but I don't think anything on the level of Vietnam, unless things get worse again." It is unclear on what evidence Ehlers is basing his assertion, as polls continue to show significant opposition to the Iraq War while Ehlers himself has been repeatedly targeted by antiwar protestors over the past year. Earlier this year, Ehlers blamed discontent over the war as a reason for his receiving less votes in the 2006 elections than he has in the past.