Walter Jones: "Never Does Anyone Apologize For Buying Into A Lie To Send Young Men And Women To Die"

Speaking of his congressional colleagues, North Carolina Republican Walter Jones, in explaining the book he's writing, God Forgive Me, told an audience, "Too many times in Washington, no one ever apologizes, especially when you send young men and women to die. We apologize if we get caught by the police driving drunk. If we have an affair, then we apologize. But never does anyone apologize for buying into a lie to send young men and women to die."

Last week, when we looked at Rachel Maddow's presentation of Hubris, one of the things that struck us is how virtually none of our political elites have been held to account for the disaster of the Iraq War. War-mongers John McCain and Lindsey Graham are still on Sunday TV dispensing their wisdom every week. Bush, Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Rumsfeld... the whole crew are more or less retired with some sense of respect they don't deserve. And many of the congressional leaders-- Dick Gephardt, now a lobbyist, being the exception-- of the rush to rubber-stamp Bush's rush to war have seen their status, power and prestige grow. Warmongers Boehner and Cantor now lead the House. Buck McKeon is now the head of the House Armed Services Committee and most of the GOP House chairmen were the ones who pushed the phony war stories.

On the Democratic side of the aisle, Hoyer is now the #2 man in the caucus, Steve Israel is the head of the DCCC, Joe Crowley is rising rapidly in the caucus leadership, and Israeli agent Eliot Engel is the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee. The only apology I've heard for this disaster is from Walter Jones, the Republican whose district includes the Marine Corps' Camp Lejeune. I can't urge you strongly enough to take the time to watch the video of him above. Now he regrets that he didn't vote his conscience. "I regret that-- and I will 'til the day I die." He voted his conscience ever since and, although I don't agree with him on a whole range of issues, he's proven himself to be the best Republican in the House... and better than too many of the Democrats. Boehner just kicked him off the House Financial Services Committee because, according to Ryan Lizza, he didn't use the position to raise money (i.e.- take bribes) from the banksters for the GOP.

"War is serious," he said. "And those of us who make the policy have an obligation to the Constitution-- and not to either party-- just to follow what they say is mandatory or necessary... War is hell... I am so fed up with people who do not understand the pain of war... My disappointment is with my own side." Jones, the deep-thinking, third-ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, explains why he's very enthusiastic about Chuck Hagel being confirmed as Secretary of Defense-- "I like him, I trust him; he's a man of integrity." He's real southern gentleman but beneath the polite veneer, you can see him seething about what a scumbag John McCain has turned out to be, not just about Hagel, but about war policies in general.

He asked Eric Cantor to allow a serious hearing and debate on the role of Congress when it comes to war. Cantor turned him down. He hopes that this year the libertarians in Congress will put some real pressure of Cantor and Boehner. "I don't say this with any malice: I don't think John Boehner has ever visited Walter Reed. I don't think he's ever seen the broken bodies... Eisenhower hit a home run when he said 'Beware of the Military-Industrial Complex.'... Congress will not hold anyone to blame. Lyndon Johnson is probably rotting in hell right now because of the Vietnam War. He probably needs to make room for Dick Cheney."

It's very odd to feel so much admiration for a Republican-- a conservative Republican, by the way-- and so much contempt for the corporatist, careerist phony "liberals" in the Democratic Party who don't have the personal integrity to stand up and look the voters in the eye and explain why they made such a big mistake. My own congressman, Adam Schiff, is one of those Democrats-- along with the aforementioned party leaders like Steny Hoyer, Steve Israel, Joe Crowley and Eliot Engel.