President George W. Bush, undaunted by the controversy over his Veterans’ Day Speech in which he suggested war critics (Democrats) were undercutting the war effort, has again gone on the offensive as a new Gallup poll shows his political stock going south as steadily as Long Island retirees in winter.
U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday sought to counter Democratic critics of the Iraq war by turning their own past words of warning about Saddam Hussein against them.
“Reasonable people can disagree about the conduct of the war — but it is irresponsible for Democrats to now claim that we misled them and the American people,” Bush said in a campaign-style speech accusing Democrats of playing politics with the issue and trying to rewrite the past.
Democrats have been hounding a politically weakened Bush with allegations that he, Vice President Dick Cheney and other senior officials manipulated intelligence in order to hype the threat posed by Saddam to justify the war.
Bush, struggling to rebuild Americans’ support for the Iraq war amid rising U.S. casualties, criticized Democrats on the intelligence manipulation charge for a second time, reflecting sensitivity on the issue as he tries to battle back from the lowest job approval ratings of his presidency.
He quoted statements made in 2001 and 2002 by three Senate Democrats, though he did not quote them by name.
The danger for Bush is that now he has opened the door wide for Democrats to call a press conference in Washington and read some of Bush’s, Cheney’s, and — most certainly — White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s own pronouncements.Those are as consistent as the weather in Kansas.
And the most recent poll? Yet another new low for Bush — plus an ominous warning for Republicans, USA Today reports:
Americans’ views of President Bush and his trustworthiness have hit new lows, a downturn that could make it more difficult for him to push his legislative agenda and to boost Republican candidates in next year’s congressional elections.
Fewer than one in 10 adults say they would prefer a congressional candidate who is a Republican and who agrees with Bush on most major issues, according to a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday. Even among Republicans, seven of 10 are most likely to back a candidate who has had at least some disagreements with the president.
Bush’s job-approval rating sank to a record 37%, down from a previous low of 39% a month ago. The poll finds growing criticism of the president, unease about the nation’s direction and opposition to the war in Iraq.
Even worse, it finds more people now disapprove of the way he’s handling terrorism — once his trump card. And, as we’ve noted before, watch the independents:
Two-thirds of independents and 91% of Democrats disapprove of the job Bush is doing. Even among Republicans, 19% express disapproval — a new high.
You can expect the number of Republicans expressing disapproval to go down as Bush launches his new offensive against Democrats.
But what screeches out at you is that, after two Presidential elections and the experience and (fleeting) unity of 9/11, the Bush administration and the GOP have the support of….well, the GOP. It’s a party and administration mostly applauded by partisans. Its success is in holding onto power — not winning over others not already in their camps.
So the Bush offensive against the Democrats (which completely ignores Republicans who are vigorously questioning aspects of the war) will likely rally the party’s base. Bush is already being praised by GOP partisans but future polls will give a better measure of how it’s actually playing.
And if conservative columnists and talk show hosts are now hailing Bush for showing guts, his critics are falling just short of calling his political behavior reprehensible. For instance, Washington Post columnist EJ Dionne writes:
The big difference between our current president and his father is that the first President Bush put off the debate over the Persian Gulf War until after the 1990 midterm elections. The result was one of most substantive and honest foreign policy debates Congress has ever seen, and a unified nation. The first President Bush was scrupulous about keeping petty partisanship out of the discussion.
The current President Bush did the opposite. He pressured Congress for a vote before the 2002 election, and the war resolution passed in October.
Indeed: anyone can “Google” the news articles at the time and it will confirm his argument about the difference between the consensus-seeking Bush I and the are-you-with-us-or-against-us-decide-now Bush II. It’s the difference between giving top priority to the Department of State and giving top priority to the Department of Defense. MORE:
The bad faith of Bush’s current argument is staggering. He wants to say that the “more than a hundred Democrats in the House and Senate” who “voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power” thereby gave up their right to question his use of intelligence forever after. But he does not want to acknowledge that he forced the war vote to take place under circumstances that guaranteed the minimum amount of reflection and debate, and that opened anyone who dared question his policies to charges, right before an election, that they were soft on Hussein.
By linking the war on terrorism to a partisan war against Democrats, Bush undercut his capacity to lead the nation in this fight. And by resorting to partisan attacks again last week, Bush only reminded us of the shameful circumstances in which the whole thing started.
The president and his top advisers may very well have sincerely believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. But they did not allow the American people, or even Congress, to have the information necessary to make reasoned judgments of their own. It’s obvious that the Bush administration misled Americans about Mr. Hussein’s weapons and his terrorist connections. We need to know how that happened and why.
Mr. Bush said last Friday that he welcomed debate, even in a time of war, but that “it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began.” We agree, but it is Mr. Bush and his team who are rewriting history.
The bottom line is that GWB seems to feel he does best, and is most comfortable with, fighting adversaries rather than doggedly seeking ways to bring them into his tent.
LBJ once said of an opponent, “It’s better to have him in the inside of the tent pissing out than on the outside of the tent pissing in.”
Bush & Co. would rather have them pissing in.
UPDATE: A VIDEO of Jon Stewart’s take on the Bush Veterans’ Day speech.
BUT THERE ARE OTHER VOICES ON GWB’S STANCE AND HERE ARE A FEW TO CHECK OUT:
A Blog For All, Oliver Willis, Michell Malkin, Sister Toldjah, Poweline, Generation Why, Digby, Kevin Drum, The Heretik, Conservative Thoughts, Political Wire, Drudge Retort, Holy Coast, Rootwork, Macsmind, Political Sports, Indiana Blue, Canadian Cynic, Punctured Eye, Tunesmith’s Mirror, Don Surber