It's pretty sad when a Republican Congressman shows more integrity about the upcoming vote on the Iran Deal than Senator Chuck Schumer does. While Walter Jones (R-NC) is still not publicly declaring how he will vote on the Iran Deal, he's also admitting his error in voting for the Iraq War, something Schumer still doesn't do.
“I did not do what I should have done to read and find out whether Bush was telling us the truth about Saddam being responsible for 9/11 and having weapons of mass destruction,” Jones said during an interview on The Tyler Cralle Show.
“Because I did not do my job then,” Jones continued, “I helped kill 4,000 Americans, and I will go to my grave regretting that.”
Those regrets are weighing heavily as Jones considers the Iran deal in front of him.
Jones’ recent comments came as he weighs a congressional resolution to support or oppose the Iranian nuclear deal. The ten-term congressman said he was currently undecided, but drew a link between the Iran vote and the Iraq vote he now regrets, telling Cralle that “I’m gonna make my decision before I go back [from the August recess] but I’m gonna carefully, because I did not do what I should have done” in 2002.
Most politicians are unable to muster the level of candor that Jones showed. For example, GOP presidential hopeful Jeb Bush said in May that, knowing what he knows now, he still would have authorized the Iraq War. A few days later, he reconsidered and declared “I would not have gone into Iraq,” but now argues that the real mistake was Obama’s decision to end the war in 2011.
Meanwhile, Schumer is shamelessly working the phones to "explain" why he's voting against the deal. I call that whipping votes, but reasonable people can disagree. Certain ex-Democratic Senators are rushing to his defense, including Evan Bayh, Mary Landrieu, Mark Begich and Joe Lieberman.
Yeah, that's a guy I want to lead the Democratic Senators.* How about you?
Maybe #WarmongerChuck should pull a page out of Rep. Jones' book and consider his rash decision more carefully.
* (For those of you who believe I'm a secret right-wing shill, that was sarcasm)
