Posted on 05/02/2007 7:39:35 AM PDT by SmithL
Washington -- President Bush carried through on his often-repeated threat Tuesday to veto a war spending bill requiring a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, but on Capitol Hill key Republicans started moving away from the administration's hard line against compromising with Democrats.
Republican lawmakers, who thus far had stayed solidly behind the president, say they could support binding benchmarks on the Baghdad government as the debate about the war goes forward in Congress.
Amid the showdown atmosphere, Bush is scheduled to meet with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders at the White House this afternoon to discuss how to proceed with a post-veto push to fund operations in Iraq.
Bush, in a short address to the nation Tuesday, said the troop withdrawal plan approved by Congress is a "rigid and artificial" deadline that must be rejected.
"Setting a deadline for withdrawal will be setting a date for failure, and that's unacceptable,'' Bush said from the White House. Moments earlier, he had vetoed the $124.2 billion bill that would have provided about $100 billion to pay for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through the end of the federal fiscal year, Sept. 30. The legislation also would have set a Democrat-backed goal of withdrawing almost all U.S. combat forces from Iraq by March 2008.
Bush said the legislation, only the second bill he has vetoed during his presidency, was dangerous because it "substitutes the opinion of politicians for the judgment of our military commanders.''
Democratic leaders said the president, with his veto, was denying the will of American voters, who last November elected an anti-war Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.
"The president wants a blank check and Congress is not going to give it to him,'' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco,
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Name one
That GOP is a bunch of wimps and do not deserve to be there.
“, but on Capitol Hill key Republicans started moving away from the administration’s hard line against compromising with Democrats.
Name one”
Same thought here. Given its the SF Chronicle, I have my doubts this is remotely accurate.
Bottom line is the President can’t back down on this.
Be this true, we, boys and girls, are f@#$ed. It appears to be too late to read the riot act. Fot GOd’s sake, hang onto your guns and ammo.
Make the benchmarks secret saw the enemy doesnt know our game plan
Bump
"Leaks" of "top" leaders in GOP is just that "leaks."
As soon as some RINOs step forward to declare that they are "breaking" with Bush, then expect the "usual suspects," i.e. Specter, Snow, Collins, Smith, etc.
The usually line up with the "enemy" most of the time anyway. No News Here!
Lott
But .. he’s always been a waiverer .. and I don’t think McConnell will NOT allow wandering by anybody.
I read a thread the other day where a couple of repubs got off the reservation and they were overwhelmed with phone calls, emails and letters telling them they better get with the program and they better not side with the dems or they were going to lose donations .. and that we would actively campaign against them.
It worked!! DO YOU ALL HEAR THAT - IT WORKED!!
We need to turn up the heat on Lott and all the others and let them know THEY BETTER NOT SUPPORT THE DEMOCRATS IN ANY WAY OR THEY WILL BRING ABOUT ANOTHER DISASTROUS DEFEAT IN 2008.
Hagel?
Bottom line is the President can’t back down on this.
I would say so. Not only is it extremely important to our country’s future, if he backs down than his Presidency will DEFINITELY be looked at as a failure. The only positive thing that he will have to say is tax breaks and perhaps the last veto. I might be exaggerating a bit on his successes, but I do believe that Iraq is the whole picture on his Presidency in my humble opinion.
Hagel is a Republican?
The article quotes three Republicans - Adam Putnam (R-FL), who is only the #3 Republican in the House, and the others are
Senators Trent Lott (R-MS) and George Voinovich (RINO-OH). None of them said anything all that controversial, only that options were still on the table and that benchmarks for progress were part of the discussion. Big deal. The spin of the article, as with virtually all of the MSM’s work, was to promote damage to the Bush Administration, and that’s not news anymore.
Getting...dizzy... must be all the... spin... BARF!
The only one I could think of would be cut and run ron paul.
They think Mr Bush always has to do what the polls indicate. By that standard he was absolutely right to invade Iraq in 2003 with more than 70% of Americans approving, and more than half the Democrats in Congress agreeing.
To a man, these people in Washington, regardless of affiliation, are foul people, who car very little, if at all, for the interests of this country. The system is broken beyond repair. This is not my Republican party. Further they would sell their mother to an Arab for a chance to stay in office.
Also, the Dems can’t back down. They have dug themselves into a hole and it will be very difficult to get out.
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