Second Republican opposes Bush Iraq plan (Sen. Olympia Snowe, a moderate from Maine)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 1/17/07 | Anne Flaherty - ap

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON - A second Republican signed onto a Senate resolution on Wednesday opposing President Bush's 21,500-troop buildup in Iraq, setting a marker for a major clash between the White House and Congress over the unpopular war.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (news, bio, voting record), a moderate from Maine, said she would support a nonbinding resolution that would put the Senate on record as saying the U.S. commitment in Iraq can be sustained only with support from the American public and Congress.

Snowe's decision to join the effort came as the White House and GOP leaders struggled to keep Republicans from endorsing the resolution, and raised questions about how many more defections there might be.

"Now is time for the Congress to make its voice heard on a policy that has such significant implications for the nation, the Middle East and the world," Snowe said in a written statement.

Earlier, Sen. Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record), a Nebraska Republican and potential 2008 presidential candidate, joined Democrats at a news conference announcing the resolution.

"I will do everything I can to stop the president's policy as he outlined it Wednesday night," Hagel said. "I think it is dangerously irresponsible."

Even as skeptical Republicans were summoned to private meetings with Bush and national security adviser Stephen Hadley at the White House, Bush's aides made clear that the Capitol Hill challenge would be met aggressively by the administration.

Presidential spokesman Tony Snow said resolutions passed by Congress will not affect Bush's decision-making.

"The president has obligations as a commander in chief," he said. "And he will go ahead and execute them."

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., a chief author of the Senate resolution, said it says "we do not support increased troops, deeper military involvement" and calls for shifting the mission of U.S. troops from combat to training, counterterrorism and protecting Iraq's territorial integrity.

He said it also calls for "the greater engagement of other countries in the region in the stabilization and reconstruction of Iraq."

The resolution does not call for a withdrawal of troops or threaten funding of military operations, as many Democrats have suggested. Instead, the legislation says the U.S. should transfer responsibility to the Iraqis "under an appropriately expedited timeline," though it is not specific.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, told reporters that she is considering supporting the resolution and said she believed it heads in the right direction.

"I want to make sure it's something I can support," said Snowe, who has been adamantly opposed to the increase in troops.

The group planned to introduce the resolution Wednesday, with a review by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Jan. 24, one day after Bush delivers his State of the Union address.

Hagel's agreement to help Democrats champion the resolution amounts to a setback to the administration and to Bush, who has argued vehemently that some 21,500 additional U.S. troops are needed to help the Iraqi government calm sectarian violence in Baghdad and Anbar province.

Bush announced on Jan. 10 that he planned to increase the 130,000 U.S. forces in Iraq with an additional 21,5000 troops.

The resolutions in Congress seemed likely to be largely symbolic and they would not affect the Pentagon's war budget or challenge the president's authority over U.S. forces. Such votes, however, could be a shot across the bow to Bush.

The resolutions also would help Democrats measure GOP support for more aggressive legislative tactics, such as cutting off funds for the war.

Such a vote puts many Republicans in an uncomfortable position. They will have to decide whether to stay loyal to an unpopular GOP president and risk angering voters disillusioned by the war or buck the party line.

Republicans are crafting alternative proposals, including a House bill introduced by Minority Leader John Boehner (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, that would vow to protect funding for U.S. troops in combat. Sen. John Warner (news, bio, voting record), R-Va., is considering a resolution expressing support for the findings by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said Wednesday she thinks there should be a cap on U.S. troops in Iraq and said she wants "to condition American aid to the Iraqis on their meeting political benchmarks."

"I am opposed to this escalation," she said on NBC's "Today" program. "The Bush administration has frankly failed to put any leverage on this government," said Clinton, considered a likely 2008 Democratic presidential front-runner, although she has not yet entered the race.

Bush has been trying to sell his revised war plan to the public in a series of television interviews. He told PBS's Jim Lehrer in an interview this week that keeping his old policies in place would lead to "a slow failure," but withdrawing from Iraq, as some Democrats and other critics suggest, would result in an "expedited failure."

Several GOP members of Congress have offered only lukewarm endorsements of Bush's plan. Lining up behind Bush in the Senate are Republican stalwarts and a few members who have long backed sending more troops to Iraq, including Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz.

[NormsRevenge]

She behind Mikulski and between DiChiFi and Hitlary...

Women U.S. Senators pose together for a television special in the Capitol in Washington January 16, 2007. From left are Senators Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Elizabeth Dole (R-SC), Patty Murray (D-WA), Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Susan Collins (R-ME), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (UNITED STATES)

[Bulldawg Fan]

Moderate=Liberal

[Williams]

America for sale. Liberal states and wimp politicians demand that our national security be impaired so they can win reelection.

It may all make local sense to these politicians, but it is a betrayal of our troops and it will only harm us in the real world.

[OldSmaj]

Sen. Olympia Snowe...a moderate from Maine...

She ain't no moderate; she's a stinking living breathing liberal that has delusions on occasion of being a republican.

If she's moderate, then I'm an imam in the local mosque and I hold the koran in abject reverence.

[Brilliant]

"a nonbinding resolution that would put the Senate on record as saying the U.S. commitment in Iraq can be sustained only with support from the American public and Congress."



You've gotta be kidding. If you're going to pass a resolution like this, then it should be binding and direct to the point. They are just gratuitously undercutting the US position.

[mtnwmn]

I'm shocked!

[OldSmaj]

...Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)

Is she the fat little short dumpy ugly one?

No, no, not Hillary...she's ugly too, but she ain't that short.

PS

To all the do-gooder kumbayah chanters with birkenstocks:

I can attack 'em for their politics as well as their looks.

I won't say anything about Hussein Obama's ears, though.

[stockpirate]

News falsh:

Bush and the Republican Party abandons the Republican base, base returns the favor in mid-term elections.

[steel_resolve]

This pisses me off to no end. (I now have a new tag)

[itsahoot]

Now, no complaining about our RINO's remember Reagan's 11th commandment.

[moonman]

Anyone who is against additional manpower being sent to Iraq to help shore up our existing military presence, can not say they support our troops. By not being in favor of sending additional troops, by default, they now have to be in favor of death and injury to the existing ones.

Thanks Snowe, Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Kerry and rest of the assw*pes.

[rusureitflies?]

I repeat; Stepped up violence=screaming demorats, msm and spineless rinos. The closer Real Amercans get "control" of Iraq the more screaming and bloodshed... get ready for MORE and pray President, Commander and Chief Bush does not lose his resolve. We can win this war.
ps: Notice how many msm rats refer to President Bush as Mister Bush? I wonder why?
More rinos sucked in by media lies.. Beware America 9-11. NEVER FORGET 3000 Americans DEAD in 5 hours. What's next?

[YOUGOTIT]

"Sen. Olympia Snowe (news, bio, voting record), a moderate from Maine"

Should have said: "A Nazi anti-American from Maine"

[Joe Boucher]

Moderate?
And pig can fly.
Olympia Snowe a moderate, B.S.

[radar101]

[piytar]

(Sen. Olympia Snowe, a RINO moderate from Maine)

There, fixed that for you...

[The Wizard]

your proof that this is a republican

[pankot]

Moderate = Person without any convictions

[oldbill]

But we have to vote for her because she is a "Republican"?