Another Republican Senator has broken with the Bush Administration over the Iraq War.
This time, it’s New Mexico’s Pete Dominici:
Sen. Pete Domenici (N.M.), a 36-year Republican veteran of the Senate, abandoned President Bush’s Iraq war policy today by publicly endorsing legislation designed to withdraw nearly all U.S. troops from Iraq by March 2008.
Domenici, a member of the defense appropriations subcommittee, is the fourth senior Senate Republican to sharply criticize Bush’s war strategy in the past two weeks. He announced during a press conference in Albuquerque that he was co-sponsoring legislation that would embrace the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, which called for a major redeployment that would leave only a limited number of troops in Iraq to focus on counter-terror operations and securing the border.
“I have carefully studied the Iraq situation, and believe we cannot continue asking our troops to sacrifice indefinitely while the Iraqi government is not making measurable progress to move its country forward,” Domenici said. “I do not support an immediate withdrawal from Iraq or a reduction in funding for our troops. But I do support a new strategy that will move our troops out of combat operations and on the path to coming home.”
Domenici’s defection is the latest from a growing number of senior Senate Republicans who have decided to oppose the White House’s preferred plan of waiting for a mid-September progress report on the effectiveness of Bush’s “surge” plan of boosting the U.S. deployment in Iraq this year by tens of thousands of troops.
(…)
Early last week Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the leading Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, delivered a rebuke to the White House with a more than 5,000-word address on the Senate floor declaring that the surge was not working and that the “current path” on Iraq was not acceptable. Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), the former chairman of the Armed Services Committee, applauded Lugar’s speech and said he would offer his own amendments calling for a change in policy during the defense authorization debate next week.
And Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) also endorsed a call for withdrawing troops, sending a letter to Bush personally making that request
There’s aren’t wobblies that are deserting the President. When you start losing the support of people like John Warner, Richard Lugar, and Pete Dominci, it means that the beginning of the end is at hand. One wonders if the Bush Administration realizes that yet.
July 5th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
Are you speaking of the RINOs Lugar, Warner, and Domenici who all showed support for the amnesty bill? In particular, the pro-choice and pro-hate crime legislation Warner? They’ve already shown defections in the past, and are clearly “wobblies”, particularly as Warner wasted no time in turning his vote around for cloture of the amnesty bill.
This is nothing more than a move to try to politically gain from something that is unpopular. Rather than doing the right thing and maintaining our responsibility to the people of Iraq, it is easier (though not right) to just turn our backs on them. Heed my words: if we leave now, we will have to return one day, and most likely have to deal with an even more dangerous Iraq.
July 5th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
CR UVa,
You mean like the RINO in the White House who also supported the immigration bill ?
I’m sorry, but the Bush Administration is over. And it’s Iraq policy is dead.
July 6th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
I agree that President Bush has made a huge mistake in terms of amnesty. However, he when he takes a position, he does stick with it, and does everything he can to see it through. And if we give up now, there may be an even greater death toll of not only Iraqis but our own troops. This is exactly what the terrorists are waiting for; standing down is not a viable option.