Repub divisions on Iraq
[from The Note]
This wasn’t what Karl Rove’s permanent majority was supposed to look
like. Even as Vice President Cheney was being dispatched to Baghdad
to prod the Iraqi government and shore up public support for the war,
President Bush was being bluntly told by Republican moderates that
Iraq is a looming political disaster for the GOP. Meanwhile, in the
2008 presidential race, the abortion issue is splintering the party,
leaving two of the top three Republican candidates scrambling to
explain themselves.
It may be healthy for the GOP to work through its internal divisions
now, 18 months before Election Day. But it sure isn’t pretty.
Tuesday’s White House meeting — charitably described by participants
as “candid,” “frank,” and “open” — speaks to the party’s most
immediate challenge: holding fast behind an unpopular war. But the
president’s vow to veto another Democratic war-funding bill was lost
in this news cycle, subsumed by a meeting with 11 House members that
represented “perhaps the clearest sign yet that patience in the party
is running out,” The Washington Post’s Shailagh Murray and Jonathan
Weisman write. Said Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.): “People are always saying
President Bush is in a bubble. Well, this was our chance, and we took
it.”