{"id":10544,"date":"2007-04-18T09:00:34","date_gmt":"2007-04-18T13:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/10544.html"},"modified":"2007-04-18T09:00:34","modified_gmt":"2007-04-18T13:00:34","slug":"dems-to-bush-administration-youre-welcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/dems-to-bush-administration-youre-welcome\/","title":{"rendered":"Dems to Bush administration: You’re welcome"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the last several months, the White House and its allies have had a consistent message: debating the merit of the war in Iraq is an inherently bad idea. In February, when lawmakers were considering (and passing) a non-binding resolution criticizing the escalation strategy, Tony Snow went so far as to suggest that the debate itself brought “comfort<\/a>” to terrorists.<\/p>\n

A month later, when the House and Senate took up spending measures that included timelines for withdrawal, conservative war supporters said the very discussion sent a dangerous signal to the world, undermined the troops, and “emboldened the enemy.”<\/p>\n

But when one cuts through the nonsense and the rhetoric, it looks like the Bush gang finds the Dems’ efforts useful after all<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Tuesday that] demands in the U.S. Congress for a timeline to withdraw American troops from Iraq are constructive because they exert pressure on Iraq’s leaders to forge compromises.<\/p>\n

“The debate in Congress … has been helpful in demonstrating to the Iraqis that American patience is limited,” Gates told Pentagon reporters traveling with him in Jordan. “The strong feelings expressed in the Congress about the timetable probably has had a positive impact … in terms of communicating to the Iraqis that this is not an open-ended commitment.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How about that, a “positive impact.” For literally months, the White House and its congressional sycophants have been arguing the exact opposite — that dissent is dangerous, that our enemies are listening, and that our troops are undermined when there are political divisions over war policy. But in reality<\/i>, Dems are doing what the president refuses to do: pressuring Iraqis to step up.<\/p>\n

What’s more, this seems to be part of a trend.
\n
\nJust ask Condoleezza Rice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[I]n her recent trip to Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice used the debate as part of a diplomatic strategy to urge Iraqi political leaders to accelerate their efforts to produce results on the economic and security conditions in Iraq. The NY Times reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“Ms. Rice said she used the restiveness in Washington to underline for Iraqi officials the spread of American frustration with Iraq’s lagging political and economic progress.<\/p>\n

“She said she had ‘made clear that some of the debate in Washington is, in fact, indicative of the concerns that the American people have about the prospects for success’ if Iraq’s leaders did not quickly take actions to ensure longer-term stability.”<\/p>\n

Iraqi leaders took note. Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq’s foreign minister, said Rice “emphasized a great deal the issue of urgency<\/a>.” Rice stressed to Iraqi leaders that “patience is not unlimited in the United States and that there’s a great deal of frustration,” Zebari added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, congressional Dems are<\/i> sending a message — which just so happens to be one the Bush administration thinks Iraqi officials need to hear.<\/p>\n

What’s more, it’s not just the Bush administration. During John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) recent (infamous) visit to Iraq, the senator used the Dems’ calls for withdrawal as a means to “motivate the Maliki government<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

“So how do you motivate the Maliki government? Well, one of the ways is go sit down and have dinner with him like Lindsey Graham and I did last week,” he said, alluding to his Republican colleague from South Carolina. He said that he and Mr. Graham had warned Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki that the patience of the American public was running out. Many members of the Bush administration and other lawmakers have met with Mr. Maliki to make the same point.<\/p>\n

“We’re telling you, there’s been votes in both houses of Congress which portend, unless the American people see measurable success, that we’re going to be out of here,” Mr. McCain said, recalling the message he had delivered to the Iraqi leader. “No matter whether I happen to agree with it or not.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s awfully convenient, isn’t it? Dems do all the heavy policy lifting, Republicans question their judgment and patriotism, and when push comes to shove, it’s the Dems who are giving the administration leverage to push for progress in Iraq.<\/p>\n

Apologies can be sent to: Congressional Democratic Caucus, Capitol Hill, Washington, DC 20515. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the last several months, the White House and its allies have had a consistent message: debating the merit of the war in Iraq is an inherently bad idea. In February, when lawmakers were considering (and passing) a non-binding resolution criticizing the escalation strategy, Tony Snow went so far as to suggest that the debate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}