While he supported the first Gulf War in 1991, Leach voted against the authorization to use force against Iraq in 2002. He was one of only six House Republicans to vote against the resolution.[1] Once the Congress committed to war, however, he held that it would be folly to assume it could be funded with tax cuts and therefore he was the only Republican to vote against the 2003 tax cut.
Jim Leach, after poll results came in, greeting the press on election night 2006. (Cedar Rapids, Iowa)Leach's position on the abortion issue upset activists on all sides. He supported the right of choice except during the third trimester but also held that public funding represented a complicit infringement on the values of too many Americans to be defensible. A supporter of stem cell research, he believed little could be more pro-life than invigorating science to advance cures to extend and ennoble life itself.