Walter B. Jones: Successful Antiwar Republican
Does it matter whether Clinton, Obama, or McCain takes the Oval Office? Whoever does, government will grow, and taxpayers will foot the bill. If you are looking for a sign of hope, however, look at Congressman Walter B. Jones of North Carolina’s 3rd congressional district. Since 1995, he has held his seat unopposed from within his party. In Tuesday’s primary, however, he faced a challenger for the first time. Why? Because three years ago, the very man who introduced legislation changing the name of French fries to Freedom Fries converted from one of the Iraq War’s biggest supporters to one of its fiercest critics. Continue reading . . .
Entries(RSS)
Chris,
I spent three years in the fleet Marine force at Camp Lejeune.
They are not a sentimental bunch out there and understand what duty means. You have written well about the real Marines; and good for The Honorable Walter Jones for providing real civilianleadership and support for America's troops.
"Veterans and active duty servicemen alike are all too aware that they are the ones shedding their blood and losing their limbs (and their minds) while the Pearles and Kristols of the world plan their next adventure. The men in uniform in Jones’s district know that he is their best friend in Congress. His support of the troops is not the mile-wide-and-millimeter-deep jingoism of yellow ribbons and bumper stickers. It is the support of a man who attends the funerals at Camp Lejeune and sees young boys who will never know their fathers. It is the support of a man who realizes America’s security is jeopardized not strengthened by this war. It is the support of a man who spends his Saturdays in his Greenville office hand writing letters to the parents of every dead American serviceman. That’s 4073 mea culpas he has penned thus far for his onetime support of the war."
Amen.
As I wrote in Chronicles some years ago, we Tar Heels do tend to think for ourselves.
Excellent op-ed. Walter Jones is one of the few decent politicians left in D.C.
If you want to know what a paleoconservative Congressman would be like, you do have to look farther than Walter Jones Jr.
Hopefully this will encourage other Republicans and throw off their neocon chains realizing they won't jepoardize their careers in the process.
If you want to know what a paleoconservative Congressman would be like, you don't have to look farther than Walter Jones Jr.
Hopefully this will encourage other Republicans and throw off their neocon chains realizing they won't jepoardize their careers in the process.
Neo-conservatives and the children who rave over at Free Republic have been wanting to finish off Congressman Jones ever since he saw the light on the foolish Bush escapade in Iraq. But Jones has prevailed and the whole neo-conservative aparatus is in disarray, discredited and despised by a supermajority of Americans due largely to the Iraq miscalculation that Jones no longer supports.
Voices like those of Patrick Buchanan and Thomas Fleming warned of what would happen if the United States invaded Iraq. Polecats like David Frum squealed that the paleos were "unpatriotic" for sounding out warnings. But the paleos were right and the neo-conservatives were wrong on Iraq. The Republicans paid the price in 2006 and they will pay the price in 2008. The Iraq misadventure combined with the self-destructive open-borders immigration policy of George W. Bush and John McCain has shattered the Republican coalition as thoroughly as Humpty Dumpty falling from the wall.
Christopher Check has paid honor to our North Carolina treasure, Walter Jones. I thank him.