Bush Iraq Speech Today Likely To Further Alienate Defecting Republicans

[babylonsister]

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/jul/10/bush_digs_himself_in_deeper

Bush Iraq Speech Today Likely To Further Alienate Defecting Republicans
By Spencer Ackerman | bio

One key point stands out from President Bush's Iraq remarks in Cleveland this afternoon: Bush didn't say a single thing that could possibly help provide any wavering GOP Senators with any political cover at a time when they're heading into a series of bruising battles with Dems over the war.

Indeed, if anything, his remarks are likely to push antsy Republicans further away.

Take a look at link~

Bush's address to a Cleveland business organization was heavy on his old standards. Failure in Iraq will have "serious consequences for the security of your children." (And no, he didn't mean that as an apology.) al-Qaeda in Iraq attacked the U.S. on 9/11. The insurgents "can't stand the advance of an alternative ideology that will end up marginalizing them." (He meant democracy, not the Iran-aligned Shiite political structure that Sunni jihadists are currently fighting and that the U.S. is defending.)

If these cliches and misrepresentations were supposed to buck up nervous Republicans, they're unlikely to work. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) isn't going to reconsider her support for ending U.S. combat operations because of "an ideology based on light."

The strongest card Bush played was his appeal for Congress to wait on any Iraq action until General David Petraeus delivers his September progress report. But coupling that, as he did, with blithe assurances that soon we'll be in "a different position" with the war effort just serves to drain Petraeus's credibility by association -- and all in a bid for at most two months of Congressional calm on the question of withdrawal, which he's unlikely to get in any case.

Over the next few days, GOP senators are going to get pummeled with vote after vote on Iraq. Clips of them defending their votes will become instant campaign fodder for their opponents, particularly in antiwar states.

Bush could have allowed them a measure of breathing room by saying that there's a strategy in place after the surge -- maybe a reduction in troops, or a decline in combat operations, or renewed diplomatic efforts along the lines of the Iraq Study Group's recommendations. Instead, Bush gave the Senate GOP absolutely nothing. If the President understands their predicament -- or even cares about it at all -- he didn't show it in Cleveland.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Typo in your subject line.

I think you mean "defecating" Republicans.

[radfringe]

2. heh, then tomorrow's Radical Fringe toon is even more delicious.....

bwaaaa-haaa-haaa

[VP505]

3. I hope it does

they (Republics) deserve everything Bu$hCo can bring to them. They supported that a**wipe, they denigrated anyone and everyone that had sense enough to oppose his policies and criminality so let them enjoy the misery.