Posted on 12/31/2006 1:38:36 PM PST by freedomdefender
Two prominent Senate Republicans bucked the White House on Sunday, expressing skepticism about more U.S. troops in Iraq and support for greater dialogue with Iran, Syria and others in the region.
Sen. Richard Lugar, the outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged the president to consult with lawmakers before announcing a new strategy on Iraq that could call for additional troops in Iraq.
If Bush were to act with without involving the new Democratic-controlled Congress, he can anticipate "a lot of hearings, a lot of study, a lot of criticism," Lugar said.
Bush is expected to deliver his Iraq policy speech - laying out his plan to improve security, assist the Iraqis in reaching a political reconciliation between warring sects and help with reconstruction - before his State of the Union address on Jan. 23.
Sen. Arlen Specter, just back from a trip to the region, also questioned the wisdom of sending in more troops, saying he has not seen an administration plan that would justify it. "If there is a road map to victory, then I would be prepared to listen to what the president has to say about more troops," he said.
The Pennsylvania Republican described the situation in the Mideast as the most serious he has seen in his 26 years in the Senate.
Specter expressed support for the Iraq Study Group's recommendations that the U.S. engage Syria, Iran and others in negotiations on Iraq's future.
Lugar suggested his committee, which Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., will lead beginning in January, hold a "retreat" to discuss Iraq, even before Bush's expected upcoming address to the nation.
Lugar said the U.S. should not rule out conversations with Iran and Syria, as well as Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, regarding the instability in the region.
The Indiana senator appeared frustrated that the president has not done more to consult Congress on Iraq policy.
"In the past, the administration has been inclined not to disregard Congress, but to not take Congress very seriously," he said.
When asked whether he would support Bush's plan for a "surge" of more troops into the country, Lugar said "I don't know whether I do or not."
He said the U.S. should have a clear policy on what those troops are required to do. "The administration needs to identify precisely where the battle lines are - who is it we combat. I haven't seen such lines," Lugar said.
Lugar also questioned whether a move to train Iraqis might "lead to Iraqis who are better prepared for civil war against each other."
He said if Bush reaches out to Congress about his plans, hearings before the committee could become "well-informed, sophisticated situations" rather than a "lynching party."
In a partisan flip, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democrat turned independent, said he supports an expected recommendation by the White House for more troops in Iraq and argued against dialogue with Syria.
When asked if he could support sending another "20,000 to 30,000" troops, Lieberman said, "I can and I hope it's exactly what President Bush does."
Specter recently visited Syria and spoke with President Bashar Assad, despite admonitions from the White House against the trip.
Specter said Assad told him that he was "prepared to work with the United States on tightening the border to impede insurgents" and also that Syria would be willing to host an "international conference" in an attempt to bring peace to the region.
"I respect what the administration is doing, but there are others of us who have been in the region who have studied it intently and have some useful suggestions to make," Specter said.
Lieberman accused Syria of allowing al-Qaida to cross its borders and kill American troops and of having a hand in recent assassinations in Lebanon.
Meantime, two Democratic presidential hopefuls affirmed their opposition to additional U.S. troops in Iraq.
Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack said the U.S. should not make a "big mistake even bigger by suggesting a surge of troops in some way, shape or form is going to make Iraq safer or better."
Former North Carolina senator John Edwards, described the troop-increase idea as the "McCain doctrine" - after a chief advocate, Sen. John McCain - and said he believes the Arizona Republican is "dead wrong."
Lugar and Vilsack were on "Fox News Sunday," Edwards appeared on ABC's "This Week" while Lieberman and Specter spoke on "Late Edition" on CNN.
Richard Lugar and Arlen Specter. Is this the same Lugar who was all in favor of getting us tied into the anti-American L.O.S.T. treaty ? As for Specter no need asking what side of the aisle this clown supports. With Repulicans like these two who needs Democraps ???
So speaketh the greatest military strategist of our day. /sarcasm
How about we draw a battle line across your face, Lugar?
Congress appropriates money, and our military can expect to see none for the next biennium. Representatives also impeach the President and vice-president (and both have committed many impeachable offenses); the Senate would convict on any impeachment charges. Bush therefore must walk a political tightrope when formulating military strategy and foreign policy. Any significant increase in troop strength in Iraq appears too impolitic even--indeed, especially--if it certainly would lead to success. The terrorists, especially Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, are winning, and the Congress likes it.
Well the people still have a say don't we. They all work for us in the end.
Poor choice of words or Freudian slip?
I have zero respect for any congressman or senator. I know, too, that one isn't supposed to judge a book by its cover. That being said, Dick Lugar has to be the goofiest clown of the bunch. In this case, the face fits.
NAME THEM using supporting evidence for your claim.
I'm sick of this crap. NAME THEM!
LOL! Wrong! Who do you think pays for their trips around the world meeting with tyrannical dictators despite admonitions from the White House against the trips?
Who pays for their bloated salaries, every medical benefit known to man, their "retreats", their leased cars, their danged retirement, their security detail.....all while they work fewer days per year than a high school student with a part time job? /rant
The above rant is not aimed at you, flynmudd. Just frustrated and you provided a perfect segue.
Imagine trying to keep the Normandy invasion secret these days. Our pols and mediots think the war is entertainment and something to use for self-promotion. Un-serious Idiots.
Trolling various Democrat websites, I find these impeachable offenses against the President. This list is very incomplete. Keep in mind that Democrats will impeach the President in the House; therefore, the offenses need to make sense only in their psychotic world view.
* stealing two elections and the Presidency, ignoring the Negative Margin of Victory Manifesto of al-Gore and John F. Kerry
* serving as the chief demon to the Incarnation of Satan (or perhaps the Antichrist), Dick Cheney
* demonic possession of otherwise peaceful Arabs in America, causing them to murder thousands of Americans
* hijacking four airliners and flying two of them into office towers in New York City
* cutting taxes and thereby depriving the American people of their yearning desire for misery, and continued advocacy of the same
* giving insufficient glory, laud, honor, and praise to Democrats; campaigning for their defeat; and various other crimes against Democracy
* opposing liberalism and crimes against communism
* claiming that Saddam Hussein possessed or intended to develop weapons of mass destruction when he knew or should have known that the media would be unable to find them in Iraq after the dictator exported them to Syria
* calling evil terrorists the evil terrorists that they are
* deposing and defaming dictators, causing tyrants to quiver, and opposing freedom of religion as "terrorism"
* protecting and defending the United States of America from her enemies abroad
* offending and opposing The New York Times and its media allies, and failing to read and obey their publications as guidance for his agenda
* protecting and aiding our friend Israel in her perpetual opposition to our common foes
* failing to implement the Kyoto Accords under the Moral Authority of the United Nations, although the Senate rejected it 96-0
* denying global warming
* general racism and hatred of blacks and probably Hispanics
* moral inferiority to Adolf Hitler, despite which his Administration dares to compare the current conflict to the fight against Nazism
* developing hurricanes from his bosom and causing them to wreak death and destruction upon destitute African-Americans
* engaging in wars without the affirmation of the Moral Authority of the United Nations
* ordering the United States military to kill the enemies of the United States
* failure to submit to the hegemony of the ascendant global superpower, the Islamic Republic of Iran
* causing rhetorical offense to the enemies of the United States, threatening them, and even making good on those threats
* failure to surrender the United States to its defeated enemies
* violating the Constitutional right of American citizens to converse and plot with our enemies abroad
* defying the eternal infallibility of Jamie Gorelick and Joseph C. Wilson IV
* not sharing all intelligence of the United States with the media and with its enemies
* violating the cover of an unnamed Central Intelligence Agency employee
* offending petty bureaucrats
* viewing classified information not through the lens of The New York Times
* (Dick Cheney only) suffering heart attacks, committing hunting accidents, jaywalking, removing a government pencil from the White House, and various other offenses
* violating myriad unconstitutional restrictions on the power of the presidency
A damn shame Lugar didn't meet the same fate as that pathetic puke and RINO-scumbag Chaffee in Rhode Island.
I am from Indiana. I despise Dick Lugar. He is a beltway a$$hole and has little in common with Republicans here. But... no ever runs against him or receives any support for ousting him. I sent a letter to him last year about the NSA and how I believed we needed people to to prosecute these leakers. His response was to tell me he was more concerned with who leaked Valerie Plames name. I was totally disgusted. He will never get my vote again.
You had fun doing this post, didn't you? ;*)
Lugar makes it all sound so simple.
The magical solution to Iraq is ....Congressional hearings chaired by Democrats with President Bush , hat in hand, bowing and scraping .
Why didn't the Pentagon and CENTCOM and the Joint Chiefs and the Secretary of Defense think of that ??
If you doubt the seriousness of the threat of impeachment against the only man in Washington willing even to consider serious measures in these serious times, then take note of the hearing that John Conyers conducted in a Capitol closet when he served in the minority. Unless the House Republicans can run perpetual interference against the Democrats and keep the House occupied with undermining America otherwise, impeachment will come, no matter how flimsy the charge. And the Senate will convict; the spines of the Republicans make a strand of overcooked linguine look strong and firm.
Not to mention all that cosmetic surgery. Did anybody else see Bob Dole on Fox today? He looks like Pelosi's twin. Must wear a mask to sleep because those eyes certainly don't close!
We knowq how helpful to Lincoln the joint committtee for the conduct of the war was. They opposed Lincoln to the day of his death and even welcomed it, thinking that Johnson would become their tool.
Congress is in a power grab, even the republicans are trying to steal power and authority via the fiction of oversight.
Look for them to try a viet nam style of surrender.
Ohhhhh, believe me, I don't doubt the seriousness of the threat. I think it is absolutely absurd, but I don't doubt it. The so-called republicans, not just the politicians, the American people, had best start raising holy he!! and support our President.
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