SAN ANTONIO, Tex.–U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) Thursday night declared that she would not have voted for the war in Iraq had she known there were no weapons of mass destruction in that country.
Responding to a question at a televised League of Women Voters’ debate in Central Texas concerning whether she would have voted differently on the war in Iraq had she known that the nation had no weapons of mass destruction and no connection to al Queda, Hutchison said she would not have voted for the war.
Responding to a question at a televised League of Women Voters’ debate in Central Texas concerning whether she would have voted differently on the war in Iraq had she known that the nation had no weapons of mass destruction and no connection to al Queda, Hutchison said she would not have voted for the war.
“If I knew then what I had known now on the weapons of mass destruction, which was a key reason I voted the way I did, I would not have voted to go into Iraq then,” Hutchison said.
This came in a debate between Hutchison, Texas’ senior senator, Democrat Barbara Ann Radnofsky (D-Houston) and Libertarian Scott Lanier Jamison in which Radnofsky, who is running an uphill race, kept the heat on Hutchison who found herself on the defensive time after time on issues ranging from immigration to her votes against the minimum wage.
While Hutchison was on the defensive Radnofsky was on the offensive, and had help from the panel of journalists asking questions. The journalists specifically asked Hutchison about her broken promise to run for only two terms in the U.S. Senate.
Hutchison said that she now believed that Texas could be at a disadvantage because not all states have term limits. However, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that neither United States Senators nor U.S. Congressmen are able to be controlled by state term limits laws:
“I favored them then and favored them now,” Hutchison said on term limits. “If you have term limits for one state but not others, it disadvantages your state…I have decided to run for a third time because I want to do what is best for Texas.”
And, while Hutchison touted bringing home more money for transportation during the Phil Gram era, Hutchison continued to point out her hypocrisy:
“For anyone to say that Rhode Island has the same infrasturcture needs is not from this planet,” Radnofsky said.
