White House Press Secretary Tony Snow made a comment yesterday — a series of comments, actually — that spoke volumes about how the Bush gang approach discourse on the war. Oddly enough, I’m thrilled to hear him make the remarks, because they help clarify the broader dynamic.
The context came in response to a question about Sen. Ted Kennedy’s proposal to require the president to get congressional authority before escalating the war in Iraq. Snow demurred, saying he hadn’t seen the proposal yet. So reporters made the question more general, asking about congressional Democrats using power of the purse to check the president’s authority. Snow said:
“Well, look, Democrats are going to have to make a choice here and they’re going to have to decide where they stand in terms of two issues: Number one, do you want Iraq to succeed, and, if so, what does that mean? And, number two, do you believe in supporting the troops as you say, and how do you express that support? Those are questions that will be answered in the process of public debate and also — and a lot of other considerations. So we’ll just have to see how it plays out.
“As you’ve seen, Bret, there is disagreement within both parties about how to proceed. But I think one of the unifying elements can be, when the President does lay out the way forward, it offers an opportunity for everybody to have a full and thoughtful debate about this.
It’s the White House pitch in a nutshell, as well as being a classic Bush gang smear. Disagree with us? You want to lose. Oppose escalation? You want to undermine the troops.
Dems are supposed to “make a choice here”? Snow may not be paying attention, but Dems already did. In a letter to the president on Friday, the top two members of Congress — Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid — explained their choice: it’s “time to bring the war to a close.” They chose to agree with military leaders who believe escalation “will only endanger more Americans and stretch our military to the breaking point for no strategic gain.” They chose to agree with the president’s position from a couple of months ago, that escalation “would undermine our efforts to get the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own future.” They chose to embrace a phased redeployment plan to be carried out over the next six months.
Their choice is straightforward: sending more thousands of troops into a civil war with a dubious plan is a recipe for disaster — or in this case, more disaster.
And Snow should spare us the nonsense about waiting until the president has finished laying out his plan before beginning the debate in earnest. For one thing, the White House has already indicated what the plan is. For another, if lawmakers wait before weighing in, they might be too late.
…Virginia Sen. John Warner said this afternoon that Democrats and Republicans should take a “timeout” before responding to the president’s plan for a new “way forward” in Iraq. “Let’s just give it a little time,” Warner said as he pushed for a period of “concentrated” congressional “study” of the president’s plan.
Tony Snow uttered similar words at the White House this afternoon, insisting that the president’s speech Wednesday night “is not the end of the debate” but rather “the beginning of an important consideration of how we move forward in Iraq….”
All of which sounds perfectly reasonable, at least until you get to this: A senior defense official tells MSNBC that, under the president’s plan — the plan that has taken the president the better part of four months to create — the first wave of additional U.S. troops will head for Iraq within the next three weeks.
Stay tuned.