The Seven Republicans Who Were Right About Iraq

By Daniel McCarthy • March 20, 2013, 4:48 PM

Only six congressmen and one U.S. senator on the Republican side voted against the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Iraq in 2002. That legislation enabled the Bush administration to launch a war at any time. The House members who got it right were Ron Paul, John Duncan, Amo Houghton, John Hostettler, Jim Leach, and Connie Morella. The lone senator was Lincoln Chaffee.

Only Duncan is still in Congress. For all the success the antiwar right seems to have had, it’s worth remembering that very few of the liberty-movement Republicans now serving have been tested to the degree those seven were. The Republican non-interventionist caucus has had to be rebuilt, and what it looks like today is quite different from what it was in 2002. Certainly it’s more philosophically unified. About half of the original AUFM “no” votes were moderates representing blue states or blue districts. For the most part, they’ve been replaced in office by Democrats.

Huffington Post reporters Jennifer Bendery and Sabrina Siddiqui interviewed the five who would go on the record about their thoughts on the war’s tenth anniversary.

6 Responses to The Seven Republicans Who Were Right About Iraq

Pongo says:

March 20, 2013 at 8:11 pm

Looking over the members of Congress who stood against the biggest blunder in American history, we should never forgot those who stood united against going to war in Iraq.

The entire Congressional Black Caucus voted against the Iraq War:

Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Illinois) Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-Michigan) Barbara Lee (D-California) John Lewis (D-Georgia) Cynthia McKinney (D-Georgia) Carrie Meek (D-Florida) Gregory Meeks (D-New York) Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-California) Major Owens (D-New York) Donald Payne (D-New Jersey) Charles Rangel (D-New York) Bobby Rush (D-Illinois) Loretta Sanchez (D-California) Bobby Scott (D-Virginia) Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi) Edolphus Towns (D-New York) Maxine Waters (D-California) Melvin Watt (D-North Carolina)

The Latino members of Congress who voted against the Iraq War:

Nydia Velaquez (D-New York) Jose Serrano (D-New York) Hilda Solis (D-California) Loretta Sanchez (D-California) Ciro Rodriguez (D-Texas) Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-California) Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey)

Fran Macadam says:

March 20, 2013 at 8:38 pm

On the tenth anniversary, these are the folks we ought to celebrate and acknowledge – and to learn from, in all details they can provide us, that we might learn.

Noah172 says:

March 20, 2013 at 11:03 pm

Morella was defeated for reelection a month after the AUMF vote, a victim of a Democratic gerrymander.

Houghton declined to seek reelection in 2004.

Chafee, Hostettler, and Leach were swept out in the Democratic wave of 2006. It was a situation analogous to the Democrats who voted against the PPACA and were nevertheless defeated in the Republican wave of 2010: in each case, members of Congress who had defied their own party on a major issue that later turned very unpopular were thrown aside by voters thinking in purely partisan/tribal terms (hatred of Bush/Cheney/DeLay; hatred of Obama/Pelosi), refusing to reward an independent-minded representative if his very presence in office might preserve his loathed party’s majority.

Chafee and Leach later endorsed Obama in 2008 (the latter even spoke at the convention). To their credit, Chafee and Leach also voted against the 2003 Bush tax cut, passed right after the commencement of hostilities in Iraq, an unprecendented (there had never been a tax cut before during wartime) and immoral piece of legislation.

Hostettler’s loss was a real disappointment for paleocons, as he was the truest Buchananite in Congress at the time (Walter Jones now occupies that spot).

If war with Iran were on the table now, which current Republican congressmen would be opposed? The only definites that come to my mind are Duncan, Jones, Justin Amash, and newbies Massie (KY) and Bentivolio (MI). In the Senate, of course there is the younger Paul, but I am not so sure about him anymore. Lee and Cruz would vote for war, such is their ardor for Zion.

By my count, that is 5-6 nays among the GOP caucuses for attacking Iran, versus 7 for Iraq. The party seems to be regressing, unless I am misjudging some other members.

Noah172 says:

March 21, 2013 at 11:03 am

Pongo wrote:

The entire Congressional Black Caucus voted against the Iraq War

Not true. Harold Ford, Jr. (TN), Sanford Bishop (GA), Albert Wynn (MD), and William Jefferson (LA) voted to authorize military force against Iraq. Wynn was defeated in a Democratic primary in 2008 by an opponent making an issue of his Iraq vote. Only Bishop of the four is still in Congress.

The only black Republican in Congress at the time, J.C. Watts of Oklahoma, not a member of the CBC, voted in favor as well.

And let’s not forget the roles of Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice in launching the war.

William Dalton says:

March 21, 2013 at 12:23 pm

Noah, thank you for crunching the numbers. I have to agree with your sad assessment of the GOP in Congress today. Before we get to war with Iran, the question is going to arise about war in Syria. The President is going to feel pressured to do something, if only to seize stores of chemical weapons there. He will probably, as in Libya, seek to act without Congressional approval. This is where I expect Rand Paul to lead the charge against him. And with Rand’s new popularity he will bring others with him.

If Obama comes to Congress to authorize war against either Syria or Iran, I believe, in the end, Rand will not in good conscience do other than to vote against it, as he felt morally obliged to vote for Hagel. Whether he would find it worthwhile to try to rouse enough Republicans to mount a fight, I don’t know.

fabes says:

March 24, 2013 at 3:26 am

it’s easy to be against the Iraq war when a democrat, the opposition. try doing it when a small group of republicans and the republican party is in control of the Presidency, and other replican reps and senators.

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