Louie Gohmert: Bush would never have invaded Iraq if he knew Obama would come along and bungle it

As Republican presidential candidates stumble over whether they would have invaded Iraq, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) offered a weird revisionist hypothetical to attack the current president.

Gohmert said Tuesday during a radio appearance that he believes President Bush would never have launched the Iraq War if he had known President Barack Obama would be his successor, reported Right Wing Watch.

“Everybody else wants to ask that question of, ‘Gee, would you have gone into Iraq if you’d known what you know now?’” Gohmert complained to Virginia talk radio host John Fredericks.

“If President Bush had known that he would have a total incompetent follow him that would not even be able to negotiate a status of forces agreement with Iraq and start helping our enemies and just totally put the Middle East in chaos, then he would have to think twice about doing anything if he had known he would have such a total incompetent leader take over after him,” Gohmert said. “That should be the question.”

The Texas conservative said he opposed efforts by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) to pass a new Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) to fight Islamic State militants because, Gohmert said, the 2001 authorization gave the president "all the authority he could possibly need.”

Gohmert, as Right Wing Watch observed, complained that a new AUMF gave the president too much authority while at the same time helping to "tie his hands in ways a good president would not need.”

“I don’t trust this administration, I don’t want to give them any additional authority that Bush didn’t have,” he said.

As the host tried to interject with a question, Gohmert continued stomping around like a man with his foot stuck in a bucket.

“That AUMF, it’s a red herring, it’s a crock,” Gohmert said. “The problem is the president’s on the wrong side -- that’s the real problem.”

“I mean, seriously, John, you think a new AUMF is all of a sudden going to give us a president that will fight with the right people over there and win over there, really?”