What if Jeb really meant his first answer?

Sam Stein, political analyst for Huffington Post, wrote about an interview with former Sen. Gary Hart (D-CO), who has raised the question:   What if Jeb Bush wasn't confused about what question he was asked by Megyn Kelly?   What if he was answering honestly and really would still authorize the Iraq war even knowing what we know now?   Shouldn't we be worried about that?

Stein quotes Hart:

"I'm trying to avoid being categorical about a whole family.  But the Bushes do not demonstrate analytical minds. They demonstrate visceral minds. The father I knew and liked a lot. The sons respond to events and respond to stimuli, and they are not analytical thinkers. And that comes out in their rhetoric . . . and their thought process and how they look at complex issues. Governor [Jeb] Bush, half his mind is how to protect his brother. The other half is, How do I answer without alienating two-thirds of the Republican Party?”

Hart was opposited to the Iraq War when it was being launched in 1993.   He had been the front-runner in the 1988 Democratic presidential primary race until scandals emerged concerning other women as well as campaign finances.   Nevertheless, he regained respect as an occasional spokesman on national issues of importance.   One of those issues is his opposition to the Iraq war.

In the recent interview with Sam Stein, Hart said that, instead of asking what presidential candidates would do now, knowing what was wrong then, we should be asking them what they would have done in the moment.    Would they have overlooked the doubts that were raised about the supposed evidence?

There were some in high places who did oppose going into Iraq.  For example, former Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) recently said that the narrative being pushed today -- that most everyone agreed that Iraq had WMD -- "doesn't pass muster. . . .  Frankly, knowing what we knew then, we shouldn’t have gone to war."

Former Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) was chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time.  In a recent communication with the Huffington Post, Graham blamed the Bush administration for withholding evidence from Congress that cast doubts on the case for war.  "In some instances public statements were made which the people who made [them] knew or should have known they were not consistent with the actual evidence, which has and continues to be classified.” 

Graham also faulted lawmakers for being too willing to trust what they were told by the Bush administration.    He was less critical than Hart was of Jeb Bush, however.  “I've known Jeb for a long time. I disagree with him on policies, but he has always struck me as an intelligent, thoughtful person;  and I would not use those same words -- particularly 'thoughtful' -- to describe his brother."

Jeb may be more thoughtful than George, but that's a very low bar to have in a president.   Frankly, I am not impressed with what I have seen thus far of Jeb.   Last week, he came across as a political neophyte, and a not very astute or quick witted one even for a neophyte.  This week, trying to repair the damage, he is coming across as a two-bit political hack.  He should not be let off so easily.  Let's not "move on" quite yet.

Ralph