THE WELDON FILES….Is Curt Weldon the weirdest congressman currently in office? It’s a fierce contest, of course, but the latest news from Weldon-land is definitely opening up some daylight with the competition.
Here’s the story. A guy named Dave Gaubatz, who was deployed to Iraq in 2003, became convinced that there were several hidden WMD caches in southern Iraq that had been overlooked by military inspectors. He tried to get someone to inspect the sites but had no luck, so he turned to Weldon and congressman Pete Hoekstra. Here’s his story about his meeting with Weldon on May 4:
Congressman Weldon asked me several times during the meeting if I would go with them [along with three Iraqi citizens] to the four sites near Basrah and Nasiriyah, Iraq. During the meeting it was discussed that no member of their respective committees would be informed, specifically no member of the Democratic party.
Congressman Weldon whom I had respected very much then advised no member of the “Military” was to be informed because they could not be trusted with this intelligence information. Congressman Hoekstra did not like this statement, nor did I. I now did not feel comfortable going with Congressman Weldon because this was going to be a ‘political personal venture” more so than for national security concerns.
Emphasis mine. According to Gaubatz, Weldon was seriously planning to take a secret trip to Nasiriyah and attempt to dig up the alleged WMD himself. As he told Tom Ferrick of the Philadelphia Inquirer, “They even worked out how it would go. If there was nothing there, nothing would be said. If the site had been [scavenged], nothing would be said. But, if it was still there, they would bring the press corps out….It was treated as an election issue that would get votes.”
Did you get that? He was going to take a little jaunt to Nasiriyah, break out his shovel, and start digging around himself ? without telling the military what he was doing. Then, when the glorious shells were found, he was going to call in the press and declare himself Weldon of Arabia, Discoverer of WMD.
Ho-lee shit. Pennsylvania can do better than this whackjob, can’t they?
