Thread by @MEPFuller

We just lost another good Congressman: Walter Jones.

Years ago, I wondered who the Congressman was who crossed party lines the most. By a long shot, it was Jones. He voted for every Dem motion that benefitted veterans, and he was happy to pay the price.

rollcall.com/news/jones_wil…

We had a long chat about his career one night, and at some point, he started talking about why he cared about veterans.

Through tears, Jones told me he came to Congress and discovered that his grandfather was gassed in the Argonne Forest in WWI and eventually killed himself.

Walter Jones famously changed his mind about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he was very open for years that his biggest regret in life was voting to authorize those wars.

Republicans wouldn’t let him have an Armed Services subcommittee chairmanship because he spoke out.

Anyway, Walter Jones was a man who voted his conscience in Congress, not his party — or, at least, he tried. He’d tell you that he often failed.

We could use a lot more of that in Congress, and I don’t think I’ll see another one like Walter Jones in my lifetime.

I’d also tell you that, in my mind, Walter Jones was the last fiscal hawk in Congress.

He was the only Republican to vote against the tax bill over spending concerns.

Every single other Republican is posturing.

More than five years later, I can still hear the quotes in this piece delivered in Jones’s soft, Eastern North Carolina twang.

Now that I think about it, this was probably my favorite interview I’ve ever conducted, because Jones was totally honest.

rollcall.com/news/jones_wil…