In 2002, 297 members of the U.S. House of Representatives (215 Republicans, 82 Democrats) and 77 members of the U.S. Senate (48 Republicans, 29 Democrats) voted for the Iraq War Resolution. MSNBC’s “Hardball” host Chris Matthews blames former President George W. Bush for convincing those duly elected representatives to support the attack on Iraq.
On HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Matthews went off on something of a rant about the 43rd president during the show’s online “Overtime” segment. Matthews said that he found it impossible to understand how Bush, a man of “limited mental power,” was able to send the country to war.
“The record of the two parties recently has been pretty rough [on the GOP] side on wars,” Matthews said. “We got into Iraq which was an idiot’s war — it is an idiot’s war … That war in Iraq – the scariest thing, a guy of limited mental power, George W. Bush talked this country — that’s the scariest thing.”
Matthews declared that Bush’s ability to accomplish the feat was remarkable in that he wasn’t exactly wasn’t one of the leaders of the 20th century.
“This wasn’t Adolf Hitler,” he said. “This wasn’t Winston Churchill. This was a guy about a little bit below average in ability and he talked this country into a war with a country that never attacked it.”
Matthews wondered if other Republicans, particularly former President Ronald Reagan, would have invaded Iraq and determined that Reagan would not have.
“Do you think anybody but George W., with his limited ability surrounded by the neocons would have taken us into that war?” Matthews said. “Do you think Ronald Reagan would have gone into Iraq? No way in the world — no way in the world would Reagan have taken us into that war. It’s insane. Make a list of high IQ people that would have taken us into that war.”