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GOP Gets Out of a Box...and Dems Get In
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02/19/07 09:48 AM ET
For all their talk about the mandate and the message voters sent them in November, Democrats still don't want to end the Iraq war on their own. They ultimately hope Republicans will do it for them. As Wisconsin Democrat Rep. David Obey, the Appropriations Committee Chairman, said Friday: "We won't have a real solution until Republicans walk down to the White House and say, Mr. President, the jig is up, this is a bad direction and you need to rethink what you're doing."
But after last week's partisan rejection of President Bush's new course in Iraq, that now looks unlikely. Increasingly Republicans, who just weeks ago appeared crushed into a painful box by both the president and the Democrats, are now able to have it both ways. Let's face it, 17 defections from the GOP during a tremendously unpopular war that now enjoys bipartisan opposition is nothing.
Last week a conservative Republican told me he opposed the surge, and had repeatedly explained that to his constituents, but he would oppose the resolution. He reasoned the surge was already under way and he didn't feel comfortable opposing the president on war policy. The option to join the Democrats in condeming Bush is not as appealing as it appears, he explained, because once they reject his strategy Republicans will have to help come up with a different solution and they don't know how to. The Democrats don't either, so isn't it better to leave it to them?
At the start of the historic House debate Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), the Minority Leader, predicted the GOP would lose the vote but win the debate. By the weekend, with the Senate again failing to proceed on an Iraq debate, Boehner was almost right. Plus, he had seized upon the rhetorical silver bullet that turns Democratic stomachs, accusing them of planning to "deny reinforcements to troops in harm's way." No matter how clever the Democrats are, those words promise to muddy the upcoming debate over conditions for war spending.
If Democrats want to win the White House, keep the Congress and end the war, they better find a way to get Republicans on board, and to stay out that painful box. It's impossible to win from there.
But after last week's partisan rejection of President Bush's new course in Iraq, that now looks unlikely. Increasingly Republicans, who just weeks ago appeared crushed into a painful box by both the president and the Democrats, are now able to have it both ways. Let's face it, 17 defections from the GOP during a tremendously unpopular war that now enjoys bipartisan opposition is nothing.
Last week a conservative Republican told me he opposed the surge, and had repeatedly explained that to his constituents, but he would oppose the resolution. He reasoned the surge was already under way and he didn't feel comfortable opposing the president on war policy. The option to join the Democrats in condeming Bush is not as appealing as it appears, he explained, because once they reject his strategy Republicans will have to help come up with a different solution and they don't know how to. The Democrats don't either, so isn't it better to leave it to them?
At the start of the historic House debate Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), the Minority Leader, predicted the GOP would lose the vote but win the debate. By the weekend, with the Senate again failing to proceed on an Iraq debate, Boehner was almost right. Plus, he had seized upon the rhetorical silver bullet that turns Democratic stomachs, accusing them of planning to "deny reinforcements to troops in harm's way." No matter how clever the Democrats are, those words promise to muddy the upcoming debate over conditions for war spending.
If Democrats want to win the White House, keep the Congress and end the war, they better find a way to get Republicans on board, and to stay out that painful box. It's impossible to win from there.
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