Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) said Thursday that she doesn’t put much stock in Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) perspective on the unraveling situation in Iraq.
She learned plenty about the Arizona senator’s expertise on the subject after Congress voted to give George W. Bush authorization to use military force against Saddam Hussein’s regime.
During an interview Thursday with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Boxer, who voted against the Iraq War resolution in 2002, recalled a conversation she had with McCain around that time.
“Listen, I’m happy to listen to John McCain because I like him as a person. But if anyone — anyone — is to tell us what to do, it’s not him,” Boxer said. “He told me when I was very worried, after I had voted no on the Iraq War, and it was going on and on. He said to me, he was so sweet about it, he said, ‘This thing’s going to be over in three to six months.’ And that’s what Rumsfeld said. That’s what they all said. They were wrong.”
“Andrea, if you took your car into a mechanic and he destroyed the whole car and you couldn’t even turn it on, you wouldn’t go back to the same mechanic when there’s a problem,” she added.
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) likewise dismissed McCain’s credibility on Iraq earlier this month and questioned why the 2008 GOP presidential nominee continues to get so much airtime.
“Why does the news media go to John McCain to ask him any time there’s anything happening because you know he’s going to be, ‘go to war, send troops,'” Meeks said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”