Remembering the Iraq War Resolution Vote

This October will mark the fifth year since Congress passed the Iraq War Resolution (Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002). It seems like a good anniversary to refresh our memory about how Congress voted.

In the House of Representatives, a total of 296 votes were cast to pass the resolution (81 by Democrats). Votes against adoption were 133 (126 Democrats, 6 Republicans, and 1 Independent). Three members did not vote. http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2002/roll455.xml#Y

In the Senate, 77 voted for passage (48 Republicans and 29 Democrats). There were 23 who voted against. All were Democrats with the exception of Sen. Chaffee (R-Rhode Island) and Sen. Jeffords (I-Vermont). http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=2&vote=00237

Here’s how the Senators and Representatives from Washington state voted:

Voting “nay” were: Sen. Patty Murray (D), Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA 3th), Jay Inslee (D-WA 1st), Rick Larsen (D - WA 2nd), and Jim McDermott (D-WA 7th).

Voting “yea” were: Sen. Maria Cantwell (D), Norman Dicks (D-WA 6th), Jennifer Dunn (R-WA 8th), Doc Hastings (R-WA 4th), George Nethercutt (R-WA 5th), and Adam Smith (D-WA 9th).

The question that has nagged me for the past five years is why so many Democrats voted for passage. Let’s remember that these votes were cast long after some members of Congress had raised serious questions as to the veracity of the information presented by the Bush Administration supporting passage of the resolution. So what happened to critical thinking? (I am neither excusing the Republicans who voted for passage nor suggesting that they possess lesser intellect, but we all know that the custom in the D.C. beltway is to vote with your own Party’s president.)

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) was memorable, doggedly challenging the Administration those many months leading up to October 2002, but he certainly was not the lone voice of dissent. There were others, both in the Senate and House of Representatives. Here’s a portion of Sen. Russ Feingold’s speech given from the Senate Floor on October 9, 2002 http://www.feingold.senate.gov/speeches/02/10/2002A10531.html

Now, after many more meetings and reading articles and attending briefings, listening to my colleagues' speeches, and especially listening to the President's speech in Cincinnati on Monday, Mr. President, I still don't believe that the President and the Administration have adequately answered the critical questions. They have not yet met the important burden to persuade Congress and the American people that we should invade Iraq at this time.

Both in terms of the justifications for an invasion and in terms of the mission and the plan for the invasion, Mr. President, the Administration's arguments just don't add up. They don't add up to a coherent basis for a new major war in the middle of our current challenging fight against the terrorism of al Qaeda and related organizations. Therefore, I cannot support the resolution for the use of force before us.

Doesn't it make you wonder how things would be today if those 29 Democratic Senators had voted against the resolution?

So I ask those Democrats in Congress who supported the resolution, “Just what were you thinking?”