Vulnerable House Republican Touts Vote Against Iraq War

ABC News’ Teddy Davis reports: Rep. John Hostettler (R-IN), the vulnerable House Republican running against Sheriff Brad Ellsworth in Indiana’s 8th congressional district, has launched a new ad reminding voters of his 2002 vote against the Iraq war.

In the new television ad, Hostettler explains that he voted against the war because the intelligence did not support the claim that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

"My parents taught me that you don’t restore trust by doing the popular thing. You restore trust by doing the right thing," Hostettler says in the ad.

In 2002, Hostettler explained his opposition to the war by articulating the principle of "don’t fire unless fired upon," which he said is "a notion that is at least as old as St. Augustine’s ‘Just War’ thesis."

Last week, during a meeting with editors of the Courier & Press newspaper, Hostettler "said ‘he has turned down many offers of help’ from the Bush administration ‘primarily because of differences over the Iraq war.’"

"’We just decided,’ Hostettler told the newspaper, "just said, ‘Just stay in Washington.’ Said, ‘Thank you, but no thank you, we’re going to run our election.’"

Despite his opposition to a war that many of them consider unjust, don’t expect liberals to rally to the Hoosier Republican’s side.

Hostettler is the same socially conservative Republican who is airing a radio that ad that warns that a vote for Ellsworth would allow "Speaker Pelosi" to "put in motion her radical plan to advance the homosexual agenda, led by Barney Frank, reprimanded by the House after paying for sex with a man who ran a gay brothel out of Congressman Frank’s home."