Gravel Goes Nuclear

ABC News’ Teddy Davis Reports: Long-shot Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel went nuclear against his better-known presidential rivals during Thursday’s MSNBC debate in South Carolina.

"Some of these people frighten me," said Gravel of the "top tier" Democratic presidential candidates — a group which is typically considered to include Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.

The former Alaska senator said that when his better-known 2008 rivals say that no option should be taken off the table when dealing with Iran, it is "code" for using nuclear devices.

"I got to tell you," said Gravel, when "I’m president of the United States, there will be no preemptive wars with nuclear devices. To my mind, it’s immoral, nad it’s been immoral for the last 50 years as part of American foreign policy."

Gravel also looped Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, into his criticism of the top-tier contenders.

"Joe I’ll include you," said Gravel while criticizing the Delaware Democrat for pushing a plan to decentralize power in Iraq along ethno-religious lines. "You have a certain arrogance. You want to — you want to tell the Iraqis how to run their country."

"I got to tell you, we should just plain get out. Just plain get out," said Gravel of the U.S. troop presence in Iraq. "Do you know what’s worse than a soldier dying in vain? It’s more soldiers dying in vain, that’s what’s worse."

The former Alaska senator also swatted away a question about why he was participating in the debate after having said at a candidate forum earlier this year that it didn’t matter if he was elected by asking rhetorically: "How the hell did the rest of them get here?"