i think we re building that type of critical mass on capitol hill. when you look at members of congress and the progressive caucus, the tri-caucus, black caucus and democratic caucus, and when you look at the vote authorizing force against iraq, i believe it was 132 or 133 members of congress most le democrats who voted against that authorization, but i think it s important as it recent to iraq and the weapons of mass destruction and the presentation of, quote, the intelligence data, if you remember correctly, the u.n. was conducting inspections process, and during that period i was on the foreign affairs committee when the bush administration decided to use force and go to war. i offered an amendment which of course the committee did not pass, but i took it to what we got the rules committee, and brought 9 rule to the floor. what that resolution said was, look let the inspections process continue
call the rules committee, got a rule and brought it to the floor. what that resolution said was, look, let the inspections process continue and they were coming back and saying, we re not finding anything. yeah let s determine if there are weapons of mass destruction. i got that amendment to the floor. guess what? i got 72 votes for it. we need 218 just to get it passed. so i share that because we have to remember the history that there were alternatives. we could have waited to determine whether or not the intelligence was accurate and factual. so let me ask you this. you re in a congress right now that said, oh we need the president, we need an authorization for use of military force. and basically, as far as i can tell, nobody is really doing much about it. but as soon as the president strikes his preliminary deal with iran, congress is rushing to have a vote to say whether up or down. what do you make of that? i believe, first of all, as it relaltstes to the president, i
military solutions than 12 years ago? i think we re building that type of critical mass on capitol hill. when you look at members of congress and the progressive caucus, the tri-caucus black caucus and democratic caucus and when you look at the vote authorizing force against iraq i believe it was 132 or 133 members of congress most le democrats who voted against that authorization, but i think it s important as it recent to iraq and the weapons of mass destruction and the presentation of quote, the intelligence data, if you remember correctly, the u.n. was conducting inspections process, and during that period i was on the foreign affairs committee when the bush administration decided to use force and go to war. i offered an amendment which of course the committee did not pass, but i took it to what we got the rules committee, and brought 9 rule to the floor. what that resolution said was, look let the inspections process
second. does washington do that? is the conversation on capitol hill any less dominated by military solutions now than it was 12 years ago? i think we re building that type of critical mass on capitol hill. when you look at members of congress and the progressive caucus, the tri-caucus, black caucus and democratic caucus, and when you look at the vote as it relates to the resolution authorizing use of force against iraq you will see i believe it was 132 or 133 members of congress mostly democrats who voted against that authorization, but i think what s important as it relates to iraq and the weapons of mass destruction and the presentation of quote, the intelligence data if you remember correctly, the u.n. was conducting an inspections process, and during that period i was on the foreign affairs committee when the bush administration decided to use force and go to war. i offered an amendment which, of course, the committee did not pass, but i took it to what we