GI Joe
11-09-2006, 11:52 PM
From a lefty Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist
What's the plan for Iraq?
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Elizabeth Sullivan
Plain Dealer Columnist
President Bush is banking on the Democrats doing it again. It's 2004 redux with Democratic self-destruction over Iraq - or so the White House hopes.
And it's not a bad gamble.
There's a huge gulf in Democratic views on the war - from Rep. Joe Biden's partition plan to Rep. Dennis Kucinich's 10-point fast exit and Hillary Rodham Clinton's eye-on-'08 spin.
Nancy Pelosi and crew may have wrested control of the House - with the Senate still in play. But the White House controls the levers for prosecuting the war.
President Bush made that clear Wednesday with his pre-emptive strike in firing Donald Rumsfeld - eliminating the clearest national security issue around which all Dems could unite. Pelosi will have to look elsewhere for her first rallying cry on national security - possibly a full-court press on the dangers of war with Iran, or the need for energy security.
Iraq may have been the central issue on voters' minds Tuesday.
But Americans cast a vote of "no confidence" in Republicans - not a vote of "confidence" in Democratic plans.
Because the Democrats still have no plan.
In fact, Pelosi made diversity on Iraq her party's default position a year ago, correctly calculating it would be electoral murder for the party to call for any kind of withdrawal. Instead, she put Marine combat veteran Rep. John Murtha on front street with his "over the horizon" withdrawal plan for U.S. troops - and it didn't fly.
And it won't fly without a party behind it.
cont
http://www.cleveland.com/news/esullivan/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1163065419195850.xml&coll=2
What's the plan for Iraq?
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Elizabeth Sullivan
Plain Dealer Columnist
President Bush is banking on the Democrats doing it again. It's 2004 redux with Democratic self-destruction over Iraq - or so the White House hopes.
And it's not a bad gamble.
There's a huge gulf in Democratic views on the war - from Rep. Joe Biden's partition plan to Rep. Dennis Kucinich's 10-point fast exit and Hillary Rodham Clinton's eye-on-'08 spin.
Nancy Pelosi and crew may have wrested control of the House - with the Senate still in play. But the White House controls the levers for prosecuting the war.
President Bush made that clear Wednesday with his pre-emptive strike in firing Donald Rumsfeld - eliminating the clearest national security issue around which all Dems could unite. Pelosi will have to look elsewhere for her first rallying cry on national security - possibly a full-court press on the dangers of war with Iran, or the need for energy security.
Iraq may have been the central issue on voters' minds Tuesday.
But Americans cast a vote of "no confidence" in Republicans - not a vote of "confidence" in Democratic plans.
Because the Democrats still have no plan.
In fact, Pelosi made diversity on Iraq her party's default position a year ago, correctly calculating it would be electoral murder for the party to call for any kind of withdrawal. Instead, she put Marine combat veteran Rep. John Murtha on front street with his "over the horizon" withdrawal plan for U.S. troops - and it didn't fly.
And it won't fly without a party behind it.
cont
http://www.cleveland.com/news/esullivan/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1163065419195850.xml&coll=2