GOP Moves Away From Bush's Iraq Strategy

An E.J. Dionne column in today's Washington Post notes that as American support for President Bush's failed "stay the course" strategy in Iraq dwindles, many Republicans are distancing themselves from President Bush and are more closely echoing Democrats' criticism of the war. The fractured support for the war among Republicans will make it an even trickier campaign issue for the GOP this fall. Congressional Republicans must now defend their rubber stamping of President Bush's failed policies while clarifying their own position on the war. This Republican political maneuver is complicated by recent polls that show that a majority of Americans believe the war was a mistake and no longer think that there was a link between the war in Iraq and the broader war on terror. (NY Times/CBS, 8/23/06) Democrats want a new direction in Iraq with a phased redeployment of troops so we can fight and win the war on terror at home and around the world.

Slowly Sidling To Iraq's Exit
Many GOP Candidates Part Company With Bush
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Washington Post
August 29, 2006

"By Election Day, how many Republican candidates will have come out against the Iraq war or distanced themselves from the administration's policies? August 2006 will be remembered as a watershed in the politics of Iraq. It is the month in which a majority of Americans told pollsters that the struggle for Iraq was not connected to the larger war on terrorism. They thus renounced a proposition the administration has pushed relentlessly since it began making the case four years ago to invade Iraq...

"...Nearly as significant as the new support for troop withdrawals is the effort of many Republicans to criticize President Bush without taking a firm stand on when the troops should come home. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), facing a challenge from Democrat Patrick Murphy, an Iraq war veteran, took a page from former president Bill Clinton's playbook by triangulating between Murphy and the president. A Fitzpatrick mailing sent earlier this month said that Fitzpatrick favored a 'better, smarter plan in Iraq' that 'says NO to both extremes: No to President Bush's 'stay the course' strategy...and no to Patrick Murphy's 'cut and run' approach.' Notice: A Republican is suggesting that Bush's Iraq policy is extreme. That would not have happened in 2004...

"...The cracking of Republican solidarity in support of Bush on Iraq has short-term implications for November's elections and long-term implications for whether the administration can sustain its policies. With a growing number of Republicans now echoing Democratic criticisms of the war, Republican strategists will have a harder time making the election a referendum on whether the United States should 'cut and run' from Iraq, the administration's typical characterization of the Democrats' view..."

To read this Washington Post column, click here.