Posted on 05/23/2007 4:21:12 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Most of the war hawks who stood with President George W. Bush on Iraq are gone or departing, leaving Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney increasingly without much company in trumpeting a steely resolve.
And it is Cheney who stands out as the administration's foreign-policy heavy, as Bush combines his war rhetoric with overtures to Democrats who control Congress.
Bush's top ally in Iraq, U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, just paid a farewell U.S. visit. The supportive leaders of Spain and Italy are long gone. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld resigned under pressure. World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz - one of the war's original architects - just announced his resignation under an ethics cloud.
--snip--
In Congress, Democrats who supported the 2002 resolution authorizing military force in Iraq have furiously backpedaled away from those votes.
Only Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice remain from Bush's first- term war council. And Rice is pursuing diplomatic initiatives, focusing more attention on broader Middle East peace issues than on the Iraq war.
Sometimes Cheney's muscular messages, such as those he sounded on his just- ended trip to the Middle East, seem at odds with more modulated ones coming from other parts of the administration, including a new diplomatic overture to Iran and conciliatory remarks by the president toward Democrats on a war spending bill.
"I think what they've decided finally to do is to play good cop, bad cop instead of bad cop, bad cop as they've been doing for six years," said GOP consultant Rich Galen. "The good cop, bad cop scenario only works if the `bad cop' is believable. Cheney is eminently believable.
(Excerpt) Read more at nasdaq.com ...
/sarcasm.
Be nice to see President Cheney in 2008.
Typical Tom Raum drivel... every article he writes, it’s “Bush bad, it’s all falling apart for Bush, etc.” I find it hard to take anything he says seriously anymore.
And to think the AP actually gives this guy a platform.
Be nice to see President Cheney in 2008.Amen! HE'd get MY vote in a heartbeat !!
I think he would win hands-down. He may not be an exciting person....but he knows his business. I would hate to be his opponent.
“President Cheney” has a nice ring to it!
(With Vice President Tom Tancredo, just in case!)
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