White House Seeks to Damp Down Talk of GOP Defections on Iraq

[bigtree]

July 6, 2007

The White House on Friday sought to downplay Republican defections from President Bush’s strategy in the war in Iraq, insisting differences over the policy have been exaggerated by media reports.

On Friday, White House spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters “there’s been a bit too much, maybe, made of what some people perceive as differences in terms of what our — what our strategy is in Iraq.”

Fratto, like other administration officials in recent days, appealed to lawmakers and the public for patience — at least until September, when a progress report is due on the effects of Bush’s troop surge in Iraq.

“It is certainly way too early to give any kind of definitive grade on how the surge is doing,” Fratto said Friday. “We’re certainly not in a place to say that the surge has been a success. And we think no one is in a place to say that the surge is not a success either.”

http://public.cq.com/docs/cqt/news110-000002546075.html



GOP Defections on Iraq: Who's Next?
Recent GOP Senators' Breaks With Bush on Iraq Raise Question of Who'll Be Next

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=3352952

[C_U_L8R]

1. Finger meet Dike

[some guy]

2. “It is certainly way too early to give any kind of definitive grade on how the surge is doing,”

They've used six of their eight months, they should be able to have a sense of how (badly) it's going.

:eyes:

[Botany]

3. George Custer seeks to damp down talk of large force of Indians

Luger, Domenici, Voinovich, Snow, Collins, Hagel, and ?????

counting out Lieberman and when Tim Johnson comes back we are just 4 votes short.

[PSPS]

4. The word is "tamp" not "damp"

These must be NCLB "graduates."

[iamtechus]

5. The verb, 'damp'

Verb  1. damp - deaden (a sound or noise)
         mute, tone down, muffle, dampen, dull
         soften - make (images or sounds) soft or softer

[bigtree]

6. yup

:eyes:

[KittyWampus]

8. sorry, but the expression IS 'tamp down'.You don't 'damp down' something, you dampen it.

however there's no need for being obnoxious about it.

Edit-No, actually I am wrong/// I guess. Just googled it and found 'damp down' in use.

Learn something new every day.

[Joe Chi Minh]

11. Don't worry. Sometimes it's possible to miss shooting a fish in a barrel full of them.

It's the thought that counts. Don't let up on the shooting.

[Cha]

7. Well, let's Recommend this

sucker then! Get the word out..filthy chimphouse wants to squelch news of repuke defection in the misbegotten war on Iraq.

It's fucking WAY TOO LATE!

[Theduckno2]

9. Do you think George Lakoff noticed this? Talk about framing an issue.

Imagine the headline read something like this:

The White House seeks to damp down talk of Iraq strategy change within the ranks of the GOP. Sounds fascist doesn't it.

If on the other hand they can be labeled as "defectors" that puts The White House in a much better light.

I mean, what self respecting mother tells their children to eat all their vegetables so they can grow up to be defectors?

[CGowen]

10. Just ask Rick Santorum or Dennis Milligan, they have a solution

"You know, I’ve talked to all three of the major candidates, that I think will be the major candidates, and that’s Giuliani, Romney and Thompson. I think those will be the three major candidates when we head into the final analysis. And I think all of them understand the issue very, very well, they understand particularly the importance of Iran, and confronting Iran in the Middle East as an absolute lynchpin for our success in that region, and I think they are committed to that. And while it may not be a popular thing to talk about right now, and I know public sentiment is against it, they understand the importance of the national security of this country, and they also understand that between now and November, a lot of things are going to happen, and I believe that by this time next year, the American public’s going to have a very different view of this war, and it will be because, I think, of some unfortunate events, that like we’re seeing unfold in the UK. But I think the American public’s going to have a very different view, and part of it will be the education that these three men will be imparting on the American public during the course of this campaign."
http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/Transcript_Page.aspx?ContentGuid=bd02aa0e-7953-414b-89ff-64db473685bc


“In his first interview as the chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party, Dennis Milligan told a reporter that America needs to be attacked by terrorists so that people will appreciate the work that President Bush has done to protect the country. ‘At the end of the day, I believe fully the president is doing the right thing, and I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on (Sept. 11, 2001),’ Milligan said to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, ‘and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been made by men and women to protect this country’.”

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Arkansas_GOP_head_We_need_more_0603.html