blackascoal
The Force is With Me
Republicans have suddenly awakened to the reality that the American people are serious about getting our troops out of Iraq and they recognize that they will have no chance at winning the White House in '08 if they stand behind this miserably failed war.
Republicans in the Senate and Congress aren't waiting for September when Patraeus reports to Congress to start abandoning Bush and his lost long ago war. Now, even leading republicans are calling for a timeline and a withdrawal of troops. This puts republican presidential candidates in the difficult position of trying to distance themselves from the war while still supporting it at the same time to please their conservative base, which seems to be the last element on the planet still too dumb to see the obvious.
Bush's poll numbers have dropped to all-time lows of 23% for his handling of the war and 26% overall. McCain is proof of what happens to anyone too close to Bush and his war. 67% of Americans now oppose the war.
Before the primaries begin, I'm betting there will be bi-partisan legislation demanding timelines for troop withdrawal. Of course, democrats will reap the benefits from this awakening no matter how republicans play it because they waited too long to recognize the inevitable.
White House faces tough crowd on Iraq
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/politics/4926744.html
excerpt **
WASHINGTON — President Bush is sending his top aide on national security affairs to Capitol Hill on Thursday to confront what has become a tough crowd on the Iraq war.
A majority of senators believe troops should start coming home within the next few months. A new House investigation concluded this week that the Iraqis have little control over an ailing security force. And House Republicans are calling to revive the independent Iraq Study Group to give the nation options.
While the White House thought they had until September to deal with political fallout on the unpopular war, officials may have forgotten another critical date: the upcoming 2008 elections
"This is an important moment if we are still to have a bipartisan policy to deal with Iraq," Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said in an interview Wednesday.
If Congress and the White House wait until September to change course in Iraq, Lugar said "It'll be further advanced in the election cycle. It makes it more difficult for people to cooperate. ... If you ask if I have some anxiety about 2008, I do."
Lugar, the senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, plans to meet Thursday privately with Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley. Hadley requested the meeting after Lugar delivered a lengthy floor speech contending the president's war strategy won't have time to work and that U.S. troops should start leaving.
National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Hadley's message Thursday on Capitol Hill will be "where we see things currently in Iraq and that we need to see what the commanders on the ground and the ambassador have to say in September."
White House spokesman Tony Snow said he sees little space between Lugar and the president, who Snow said sees troop withdrawals "over the horizon."
"We think it's important to allow the Baghdad security plan to work," Snow told reporters. "But if you take a look at what Sen. Lugar's trying to figure out, it's what configuration is going to be conducive in the long run to success and also building greater bipartisan support."
Indeed, the senator says he still opposes Democratic proposals setting an end date on the war. Lugar also warns against withdrawing forces too quickly and putting troops in harms' way.
But Lugar's contention that the military begin now a "sizable" drawdown of U.S. forces aligns Lugar more with Democrats than Bush and poses a serious challenge to the administration's insistence that it manage the war on its own timetable. As a prominent voice in the GOP caucus, Lugar says he would consider legislative measures this summer if the White House is unresponsive to his position.
Other GOP senators have aligned themselves with a similar position, including Sen. George Voinovich. On Tuesday, the Ohio Republican sent Bush a letter calling for "responsible military disengagement" from Iraq.
Republican Sens. Norm Coleman of Minnesota and John Sununu of New Hampshire also say they want to see troops departing Iraq by early 2008. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Wednesday she is working with Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Ben Nelson, D-Neb., on a new bipartisan policy for Iraq.
******************
Additionally ...
Senators' dissent over Iraq might trigger a different surge
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/06/27/iraq.gop.dissent/index.html?section=cnn_latest
excerpt **
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With the election season and a key Iraq war progress report perched on the horizon, more Republicans will start to distance themselves from President Bush's Iraq policy, analysts say.
Two respected senior GOP senators this week publicly asked the president to look for a way out of Iraq. One of them -- Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana -- is the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"When Dick Lugar comes out against your foreign policy, it means your dam is breaking, and it means we're far more likely as a country to move from Plan A to Plan B this fall, when it comes to Iraq," said David Gergen, who has advised both Republican and Democratic presidents.
Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, is jumping straight to what he calls Plan "E" for "Exit."
Analysts and Republican strategists say it's one thing for a few lesser-known Republicans to go against the White House; but some believe a respected senior party stalwart like Lugar turning against the war gives cover for other skeptical Republicans of Lugar's stature, like Sen. John Warner of Virginia, to make a break from the administration's position.
Warner, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, hinted that might be coming.
"I have some thoughts of my own but I will withhold those thoughts until I participate in the debates over the (Defense Authorization Bill) after the Fourth of July."
Analysts say a different surge might be in the offing as September nears -- a Republican surge for withdrawal.
**********
More than a half-trillion dollars and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dead, maimed, and traumatized innocent lives, including tens of thousands of our own dead and wounded, too goddamn late, republicans are finally recognizing what has been obvious to the rest of the world for years. This war is a failure and a fraud and it has been from its very beginning.
Republicans in the Senate and Congress aren't waiting for September when Patraeus reports to Congress to start abandoning Bush and his lost long ago war. Now, even leading republicans are calling for a timeline and a withdrawal of troops. This puts republican presidential candidates in the difficult position of trying to distance themselves from the war while still supporting it at the same time to please their conservative base, which seems to be the last element on the planet still too dumb to see the obvious.
Bush's poll numbers have dropped to all-time lows of 23% for his handling of the war and 26% overall. McCain is proof of what happens to anyone too close to Bush and his war. 67% of Americans now oppose the war.
Before the primaries begin, I'm betting there will be bi-partisan legislation demanding timelines for troop withdrawal. Of course, democrats will reap the benefits from this awakening no matter how republicans play it because they waited too long to recognize the inevitable.
White House faces tough crowd on Iraq
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/politics/4926744.html
excerpt **
WASHINGTON — President Bush is sending his top aide on national security affairs to Capitol Hill on Thursday to confront what has become a tough crowd on the Iraq war.
A majority of senators believe troops should start coming home within the next few months. A new House investigation concluded this week that the Iraqis have little control over an ailing security force. And House Republicans are calling to revive the independent Iraq Study Group to give the nation options.
While the White House thought they had until September to deal with political fallout on the unpopular war, officials may have forgotten another critical date: the upcoming 2008 elections
"This is an important moment if we are still to have a bipartisan policy to deal with Iraq," Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said in an interview Wednesday.
If Congress and the White House wait until September to change course in Iraq, Lugar said "It'll be further advanced in the election cycle. It makes it more difficult for people to cooperate. ... If you ask if I have some anxiety about 2008, I do."
Lugar, the senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, plans to meet Thursday privately with Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley. Hadley requested the meeting after Lugar delivered a lengthy floor speech contending the president's war strategy won't have time to work and that U.S. troops should start leaving.
National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Hadley's message Thursday on Capitol Hill will be "where we see things currently in Iraq and that we need to see what the commanders on the ground and the ambassador have to say in September."
White House spokesman Tony Snow said he sees little space between Lugar and the president, who Snow said sees troop withdrawals "over the horizon."
"We think it's important to allow the Baghdad security plan to work," Snow told reporters. "But if you take a look at what Sen. Lugar's trying to figure out, it's what configuration is going to be conducive in the long run to success and also building greater bipartisan support."
Indeed, the senator says he still opposes Democratic proposals setting an end date on the war. Lugar also warns against withdrawing forces too quickly and putting troops in harms' way.
But Lugar's contention that the military begin now a "sizable" drawdown of U.S. forces aligns Lugar more with Democrats than Bush and poses a serious challenge to the administration's insistence that it manage the war on its own timetable. As a prominent voice in the GOP caucus, Lugar says he would consider legislative measures this summer if the White House is unresponsive to his position.
Other GOP senators have aligned themselves with a similar position, including Sen. George Voinovich. On Tuesday, the Ohio Republican sent Bush a letter calling for "responsible military disengagement" from Iraq.
Republican Sens. Norm Coleman of Minnesota and John Sununu of New Hampshire also say they want to see troops departing Iraq by early 2008. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Wednesday she is working with Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Ben Nelson, D-Neb., on a new bipartisan policy for Iraq.
******************
Additionally ...
Senators' dissent over Iraq might trigger a different surge
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/06/27/iraq.gop.dissent/index.html?section=cnn_latest
excerpt **
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With the election season and a key Iraq war progress report perched on the horizon, more Republicans will start to distance themselves from President Bush's Iraq policy, analysts say.
Two respected senior GOP senators this week publicly asked the president to look for a way out of Iraq. One of them -- Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana -- is the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"When Dick Lugar comes out against your foreign policy, it means your dam is breaking, and it means we're far more likely as a country to move from Plan A to Plan B this fall, when it comes to Iraq," said David Gergen, who has advised both Republican and Democratic presidents.
Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, is jumping straight to what he calls Plan "E" for "Exit."
Analysts and Republican strategists say it's one thing for a few lesser-known Republicans to go against the White House; but some believe a respected senior party stalwart like Lugar turning against the war gives cover for other skeptical Republicans of Lugar's stature, like Sen. John Warner of Virginia, to make a break from the administration's position.
Warner, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, hinted that might be coming.
"I have some thoughts of my own but I will withhold those thoughts until I participate in the debates over the (Defense Authorization Bill) after the Fourth of July."
Analysts say a different surge might be in the offing as September nears -- a Republican surge for withdrawal.
**********
More than a half-trillion dollars and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dead, maimed, and traumatized innocent lives, including tens of thousands of our own dead and wounded, too goddamn late, republicans are finally recognizing what has been obvious to the rest of the world for years. This war is a failure and a fraud and it has been from its very beginning.
