Walter Jones, 'freedom fries' congressman who became Iraq War critic, dies at 76
Walter B. Jones Jr., a North Carolina congressman who so enthusiastically supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq that he argued for the french fries and French toast served in House cafeterias to be called “freedom fries” and “freedom toast” — a jab at France for its opposition to the war — but who later underwent a dramatic change of heart and emerged as a prominent Republican critic of the war, died Feb. 10, on his 76th birthday.
His office confirmed the death in a statement. It had announced on Jan. 26 that the 13-term lawmaker had entered hospice care, his health having declined after a fall in which he broke his hip. Mr. Jones had been granted a leave of absence in late 2018 for an unspecified illness.
Mr. Jones first ran for Congress in 1992, campaigning unsuccessfully as a conservative Democrat for the northeastern North Carolina district that his father had represented for 26 years. A Southern Baptist from childhood, Rep. Jones had converted to Catholicism in his early 30s and cited his opposition to abortion among the factors that led to his disenchantment with his family’s longtime political party.
Two years later, amid the “Republican revolution” that swept the House, he joined the GOP and won a seat in a neighboring district that presently includes the Marine Corps’s Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point air station.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/walter-jones-freedom-fries-congressman-who-became-iraq-war-critic-dies-at-76/ar-BBTq6Ux?li=BBnb7Kz
I didn't know he later had a change of heart on the war.
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