posted on May 10, 2007 11:53:38 PM new
NBC: 11 Republicans Berate Bush Over Iraq In Private White House Meeting
In a sign of the growing fissure between the White House and its congressional allies over the war, NBC News reports tonight that 11 Republican members of Congress pleaded yesterday with President Bush and his senior aides to change course in Iraq.
The group of Republicans was led by Reps. Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Charlie Dent (R-PA), and the meeting included Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Karl Rove, and Tony Snow. One member of Congress called the discussion the “most unvarnished conversation they’ve ever had with the president,” and NBC’s Tim Russert said it “may have been a defining pivotal moment” in the Iraq debate.
Russert described the conversation:
[O]ne said “My district is prepared for defeat. We need candor, we need honesty, Mr. President.” The president responded, “I don’t want to pass this off to another president. I don’t want to pass this off, particularly, to a Democratic president,” underscoring he understood how serious the situation was.
Brian, the Republican congressman then went on to say, “The word about the war and its progress cannot come from the White House or even you, Mr. President. There is no longer any credibility. It has to come from Gen. Petraeus.” The meeting lasted an hour and 15 minutes and was, in the words of one, “remarkable for the bluntness and no-holds-barred honesty in the message delivered by all these Republican congressmen.”
posted on May 11, 2007 10:47:33 AM new
Like Nixon long ago, Bush gets a GOP reality check
Posted by William Neikirk at 12:15 p.m. CDT
Karl Rove was furious, or so it was reported. He called up to administer a tongue-lashing to Republican lawmakers who had dared leak out details of their hush-hush meeting with President Bush on Tuesday.
In that meeting, the GOP members bluntly told the president their support for the war was fading and could end if conditions in Iraq didn't improve by September.
Some analysts noted this incident sounded like another famous visit by members of Congress to an embattled president. A look at history is in order. On Aug. 7, 1974, with the Watergate scandal raging, three GOP members, veteran Sen. Barry Goldwater, Senate Majority Leader Hugh Scott, and House Majority Leader John Rhodes, went to see President Nixon and tell him like it was.
Nixon's chief of staff, Alexander Haig, urged them not to demand or suggest a resignation, viewing it as a "trespass" on the constitution's separation of powers. (According to Haig's book, Nixon had already concluded that he would resign before the trio showed up).
The congressional delegation assured Haig they would not mention the word resignation. But, then at the meeting, Nixon asked for an estimate of how an impeachment trial would go in the Senate.
Goldwater told him he could count only 12 votes for Nixon. "I've got to be frank," Goldwater added. "I am not sure I'm one of the 12." Scott said the number might be 15, no more. A presidential aide confirmed this low level of support.
"Well, it looks damn bad," Nixon said, according to Haig's book. "But don't worry. I'm not going to cry. I haven't cried since Eisenhower died."
Goldwater told reporters afterward, "We were fond old friends talking over a very painful situation." And word soon leaked out that the president was on the verge of resigning the presidency. He did the next evening, on Aug. 8, 1974. He said farewell on Aug. 9, 1974, and there were tears in his eyes.
Though some fringe Democrats want to impeach Bush, the visit by GOP members to see President Bush pales by comparison with the Watergate visit of Goldwater, Scott and Rhodes. Yet, the truth was laid on the table in the meeting with Bush, as it was with Nixon. That's always a refreshing thing in a city obsessed with fears that candor might emerge from a constant fog of spin.
Absolute faith has been shown, consistently, to breed intolerance. And intolerance, history teaches us, again and again, begets violence.
---------------------------------- The duty of a patriot in this time and place is to ask questions, to demand answers, to understand where our nation is headed and why. If the answers you get do not suit you, or if they frighten you, or if they anger you, it is your duty as a patriot to dissent. Freedom does not begin with blind acceptance and with a flag. Freedom begins when you say 'No.'
posted on May 11, 2007 12:22:26 PM new
ROFLOL at even the words...."impeach Bush"
The gutless liberals don't even have enough backbone to stop funding the wars they LED the voters to believe they'd stop.....let alone find enough WIMPS to vote to impeach him.
ROFLOL
"While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation": "What would a Democrat president have done at that point?"
"Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack."
