Time will tell if Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) will have the courage to actually vote for a change in Iraq war policy. He offered some mildly encouraging comments yesterday, but we don’t yet know whether the senator, who is up for re-election next year, will put his vote where his rhetoric is.
In announcing his desire for “a new strategy,” however, Domenici responded to questions about why he finally gave up on Bush’s status quo.
Speaking to reporters on a conference call from Albuquerque, Mr. Domenici said his change of heart came after conversations with the families of New Mexico soldiers killed in Iraq who asked him to do more to save those still serving there.
“I heard nothing like that a couple of years ago,” he said. “I think that’s the result of this war dragging on almost indefinitely.”
That it? That’s the reason? Domenici has cast his Iraq votes the way the president has told him to for five years; he’s bashed Democratic proposals; and he’s equated withdrawal timelines with “encouraging terrorists,” but after talking with grieving families, then he started questioning the wisdom of the policy?
Domenici is on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, where he presumably has heard an update or two in recent years about conditions in Iraq. One might even assume that he’s seen some kind of report or heard some kind of briefing about U.S. fatalities and our national security interests as they relate to the war.
But he refused to consider a change in the status quo until he actually talked about the conflict with fallen troops’ families? What has he been doing since 2003? Did he not realize there might be some New Mexico families who wanted a change, say, last year?
Domenici isn’t even the only one.
“When you have senior, well-respected Republican senators like Dick Lugar, John Warner and Pete Domenici all calling upon the administration to pursue a new strategy, it is significant,” said Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican also up for re-election next year.
She said her talks with voters convinced her that the war remained the top issue. And she joined Mr. Domenici in saying the patience of many Republicans with the Iraqi government was virtually exhausted. “It is very troubling to many of us that the Iraq government appears to be making little or no progress toward political reconciliation,” she said. (emphasis added)
Really. When a senator talks to voters from his or her state, he or she learns that Americans are outraged about the war, which in turn leads the lawmakers to consider a change of course. Who would have guessed.
By this logic, the only thing standing between the nation and a responsible war policy is a more efficient constituent-service operation in senators’ offices.
I don’t mean to sound overly flippant here; at a certain level I suppose it doesn’t matter why Republicans give up on Bush’s failure, just so long as they do. But I can’t help but find it frustrating to hear people who are obviously motivated by political concerns struggle to convince people otherwise. Honesty is out of the question, apparently.