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NYT: G.O.P. Moderates Warn Bush Iraq Must Show Gains
Moderate Republicans gave President Bush a blunt warning on his Iraq policy at a private White House meeting this week, telling the president that conditions needed to improve markedly by fall or more Republicans would desert him on the war.The White House session demonstrated the grave unease many Republicans are feeling about the war, even as they continue to stand with the president against Democratic efforts to force a withdrawal of forces through a spending measure that has been a flash point for weeks. Participants in the Tuesday meeting between Mr. Bush, senior administration officials and 11 members of a moderate bloc of House Republicans said the lawmakers were unusually candid with the president, telling him that public support for the war was crumbling in their swing districts. One told Mr. Bush that voters back home favored a withdrawal even if it meant the war was judged a loss. Representative Tom Davis told Mr. Bush that the presidents approval rating was at 5 percent in one section of his northern Virginia district. Several of the Republican moderates who visited the White House have already come under political attack at home for their support of Mr. Bush and survived serious Democratic challenges in November. Representative Charles W. Dent of Pennsylvania, a co-chairman of the Tuesday Group, an alliance of about 30 moderate Republican lawmakers, helped arrange the meeting. He said lawmakers wanted to convey the frustration and impatience with the war they are hearing from voters. We had a very frank conversation about the situation in Iraq, he said. Even so, the Republicans who attended the White House session indicated that they would maintain solidarity with Mr. Bush for now by opposing the latest Democratic proposal for two-stage financing of war, which is scheduled for a vote on Thursday in the House. ...Theres a sense here certainly by the Democrats and growing among Republicans that there has to be some progress, significant progress to sustain it beyond September, said Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican. Lawmakers said there was strong emphasis that they would be formulating their future position on the war on the basis of what Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander in Iraq, says in a report this summer. I think people want to hear what the general says, said Representative Gerlach, of Pennsylvania. We will all go from there. This is what happens when you have a Democratic Party which views public opinion as something to be molded, managed, manipulated, and exploited-- and is damned good at doing it-- and Republicans who only know how to follow polls. Not one leader among them. Frankly, it's starting to look to me like America is going to cede this round of the war, and bug out even before the end of Bush's term. I hope not-- but that's what it's beginning to look like. Posted by: Dave D. 2007-05-10 |
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