http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16610773/site/newsweek/

Jan. 22, 2007 issue - Last Tuesday afternoon, a day before President George W. Bush went on TV to explain his decision to send more troops to Iraq, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called his Republican colleagues together for a private talk. Several GOP senators had already come out against the plan. McConnell, Bush's closest Senate supporter on Iraq, hoped to keep others from defecting. He urged his colleagues to stand together at least until Bush had the chance to speak to the country. After the meeting, the senators went outside the room to display their unity to waiting reporters. McConnell said he thought more troops were just the thing to "give us a chance to succeed." He then stepped aside so the other senators could second his sentiments. No one came forward.

A former senior Bush aide who is still close to the White House says if things don't improve, a delegation of Republican senators could one day show up in the Oval Office to tell Bush that the party is no longer with him and the war must end.

It's him and Barney till the very end.

Why is this Happening? Does Al Queada supposedly being in Iraq, and being one of the major justifications for going into Iraq, have anything to do with Bush being in this position?

Where are all the republicans rushing to defend their presidents credibility? The cons on this forum seem just as willing to defend his credibility as the Republican Senators are. There is no defense.

Isn't it true that you wouldn't support George W. Bush NO MATTER WHAT HE DOES OR DOESN'T DO???

Well, guess what???? He's the COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF and he gets to lead and decide how to fight this war. Just as Bill Clinton got to lead on Kosovo and every other military action HE decided was right.

And FRANKLY----Bush doens't care. He's President for 2 more years and will do what he believes is best for the country. He doesn't have to worry about re-election.

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"This is a time for a national imperative not to fail in Iraq." Condoleeza Rice, January 11, 2007

That is absolutely untrue JP5. As i have said before If Bush deserved support he would be getting it from ME and the rest of America. But most importantly he would be getting support from Senators from his own party.
IF HE DESERVED IT.
Unfortunately what he does is directly related to what he has done. That is why he is getting the support he deserves.

Bush will do better in the Senate than expected. With half the Senate Democrats running for President, he's going to be able to finagle a lot more legislation than people think. I think when push comes to shove, he'll do just fine with Repubs in the Senate.

Why are all the others avoiding this thread like the plague?

Anyway, I'm extremely skeptical about anything that Bush says or proposes to do. Like his border fence that he paid for, but later decided "but not to block off the entire 2000-mile length"

Respect is earned and not just handed out. Bush has given 69% of this country no reason to respect him. So dont be mad when threads like this pop up.

You're right he's the Commander in Chief, and no matter how loony his plans are (yeah lets send in more troops when at times last year there were even more troops and we were still getting stopped in our tracks by terrorists and insurgents) I'll hope they work because I want whats best for America too. Bush and friends made mistake after mistake after mistake and thus created a quagmire. We killed more innocent Iraqis than Saddam did. We are ridiculously in debt. Our reputation has been destroyed by the mistakes and by the pre-emptive invasion/occupation. It would be best for America to GTFO. We raised the national mortality rate in Iraq, we made it a battlefield for sectarian violence, and we're gonna lose more americans' lives when we send more troops.

So far,the Iraqi Prime Minister is doing his part. Which is a good thing. Now if we can count on the Iraqi military to be as effective as Bush is counting them on being, then that's another step forward. FRANKLY, his troop surge plan...his final plan...has too many what-if's. Too many unanswered questions.

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America is a melting pot, the people at the bottom get burned while all the scum floats to the top.
- - - Charlie King

There should be much more to add after Bush's big speech tonight. I noticed that the mods moved this thead..

http://www.politicalforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=24325

Before there is more credible information to add.

Tonight is the night that Bush officially starts blaming the Democrats for his failures in Iraq.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070124/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq


Even Republicans opposed to the legislation expressed unease with the revised policy involving a war that has lasted nearly four years, claimed the lives of more than 3,000 U.S. troops and helped Democrats win control of Congress in last fall's elections.

"I am not confident that President Bush's plan will succeed," said Sen. Richard Lugar (news, bio, voting record) of Indiana, senior Republican on the committee.

But he said in advance he would vote against the measure. "It is unclear to me how passing a nonbinding resolution that the president has already said he will ignore will contribute to any improvement or modification of our Iraq policy."

"The president is deeply invested in this plan, and the deployments ... have already begun," Lugar added.


The Surge is being forced upon America and it's troops.

Look, I'm a Conservative so right wing I would probably terrify most East/West-Coast Republican moderates. I am a Conservative Christian, anti-gay, anti-abortion, I am a Conservative constitutionalist, small Government, absolute un-restricted gun ownership, states-rights, I am a *fairly* Free-Market Economic conservative, less welfare, lower taxes, less government spending etc.

So why do I despise President Bush and most Republicans? For one thing, as a Southerner the very word "Republican" is offensive, bringing back memories of the Republican Rape of the South from 1865-1880. For another, the Republican party consists of two elements.

The rank and file simps who believe the party line, and the Leadership who says and promises all these great conservative policy, but then just implements Corporationist Totalitarianism. This President has not cut spending. He has not cut taxes for anyone but large corporations. He refuses to stop signing idiotic trade deals with potential enemies like China and India, and he refuses to control the US border, supporting amnesty and guest worker programs.

Look at europe. Have the germans got rid of the Guestarbeiten yet? I don't think so. So how are we gonna do it? He gives tax-cuts to oil corporations that exceed their quarterly income. How is that a cut? It's not, it's a subsidy! Thats Socialism.

He let the assault weapon ban go unrenewed and he put a stop to Partial Birth abortions. Great, but why hasnt he done more to overturn Roe v Wade? Why hasn't he repealed all gun-control of any kind? He talks about Gay Marriage, why doesn't he repeal some Civil Rights laws that guarantee gays bs equal opportunity, school-teaching and parading rights that they don't deserve?

The republican leadership laughs at Christian Conservatives, homosexual Karl Rove referring to them as "The Nuts" with Dick Cheney, who has a gay daughter. He claims to support marriages, but will he implement laws that make divorce easier on men? Nooope.

And the Border, that's just insanity. We have armed gunmen, who could be Police, mexican military or mafia hitmen running across the border on practice runs ,and National Guardsmen fleeing from them. That's an act of war! In a city that is seperated from a US city only by a 100 foot ditch, we have a hundred beheaded policemen. Shots originating in Nuevo Laredo Mexico are coming across the border into Laredo Texas and winging police officers and civilians.

And then, two Border Patrol agents who shot a Drug Smuggler in the Ass as he was trying to shoot them are brought up on charges, given the maximum sentence, the Drug Smuggler is given immunity to testify against them, then given immunity again when he is caught bringing more drugs into the country across the border, and to top it off three jurors say their votes were coerced.

Does the President do anything about this chaos? No. He appoints Fascist Spic Alberto Gonzalez in charge of the office responsible for this travesty of a trial, a man who argued with congress that while the Constitution says you can't take away Habeas Corpus, it doesn't actually state that anyone is granted that right.

He refuses to let National Guardsmen protect themselves, he refuses to close the border and he refuses to enforce our nations laws.

If this president were a a true conservative, a true president, or an actual MAN he would implement Operation Wetback II (gotta love Eisenhower), authorize lethal force on the part of the national guard and triple the guard numbers at the border, as well as pardoning Compean and Ramos, and firing Gonzales, firing the Judge who presided over their trial, and firing the federal justice who granted the Smuggler immunity, then launching an investigation into the entire Justice Department.

Every mayor of a sanctuary city should be arrested. Sanctuary Cities are illegal under federal law. Anyone who sues policemen for aiding federal authorities in the detection and removal of illegal aliens should be arrested. The border fence should be built, you know, that fence that was estimated to cost 58 billion dollars, but was just revealed to actually cost only 2 billion?

We need a cessation of all legal immigration into this country until every last illegal has been sorted out and the immigration authorities have modernized their filing system. Then, we need to halt immigration after each big wave of immigrants to allow them time to assimilate, which is what we did with every big immigrant wave of the 1900s and 1800s, from the Germans to the Irish.

This president will never do these things, and so he is a liar. And now, the rank-and-file Republicans are starting to realize it, which is why fifty republican representatives have denounced the president publicly for failing to act on the Compean/Ramos case, which is why everywhere you turn you see republicans disgusted with their president and disgusted with their leadership which passed that travesty of an amnesty bill in the senate last year.

I truly wish we had a viable third party. Take the most right-leaning Democrats and the misled rank-and-file conservatives from the republicans and rebel. Call em the Dixiecrats or somesuch. Cause I am very unhappy with the republicans.

But don't even get me started on the Democrats first three weeks. They are the biggest dissapointment yet.

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"Those who turn swords into plowshares will do the plowing for those who do not" - Anon

"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded emotional and mental development" - Sigmund Freud

-Senator Chuck Hagel, (R)



I've long stated that it will be Republicans on the hill who end this war.

That time is fast approaching.