Iraq Veto & The Coming GOP Snowe Job

I heard Sen. Snowe on NPR yesterday fleshing out the next bipartisan way forward in Iraq smoke-and-mirrors strategy for her party's survival.  In a nutshell, they want to distance themselves from Bush rhetorically, yet give him free rein until September, when they will take advantage of the shiny new lightning rod they have in Gen. Petraeus.

Petraeus, of course, is nothing but a front-man for the WH, swapped in as a "Surge" advocate the moment it looked like Bush might be in disagreement with his Commanders on The Ground{tm}.  It was a shrewd move: Petraeus now enjoys the highest public trust rating when it comes to talking about what's going on in Iraq--much higher than anyone else in government.  

That trust is a critical element of what's to come next.  (more below)

Led by Snowe, GOP "moderates" (read: vulnerable in 2008) now say they favor "benchmarks", but they want Gen. Petraeus to be the one designated to come make reports to Congress.  That lets Bush completely off the hook, of course.  No undesirable theater of a president submitting to questions from mere Representatives of the People.

Instead, General Petraeus, resplendent in star-bedecked uniform as the latter-day Colin Powell, will use his bipartisan credibility to finesse the progress reports so that benchmarks apprear either met or so close to being achieved that it would be heartless for us to pull the plug just now.  

And if all else fails, there is still another GOP firewall: When pressed on what might happen if any criteria were unambiguously unmet, Snowe said, in effect, "well, we'll just need to take another look at funding for the surge in Baghdad."  In Snowe's plan, that appropriation would be considered separately from the occupation as a whole.

Funding for the surge?  My, how things have changed since November!  Remember how we used to be talking about withdrawal, period?  Now the ultimate price Bush pays for failure is a return to status quo circa the 2006 elections--after innumerable second chances to avoid even that "setback".  

But hey, it'll be bipartisan, so I'm sure David Broder will be first in line to canonize Olympia Snowe.

•  Some GOP frames need shattering, methinks...

  Will the Dem leadership listen?

  by turbonium on Thu May 03, 2007 at 12:49:21 PM PDT

•  Petraeus

  Seems to be the golden boy for the Admin's strategy.
  --
  What do we know about him?

  1. He comes off very well in all of the Iraq-books that are otherwise critical of the war -- suggesting that he must have been very accessible to, and accommodating of, reporters.

  2. He is the general reported to have called off the transfer of the WMD-hunting unit that NY Times reporter Judy Miller demanded be retained in Baghdad -- suggesting that he was particularly solicitous of her good opinion.

  3. He is a good friend and running partner of former Senate Majority leader Bill Frist (TN), who apparently saved his life when he was shot in a training accident.

  by walden on Thu May 03, 2007 at 01:11:36 PM PDT

•  FYI

  Snowe is NOT up for re-election in '08.  She survived reelection by wrapping herself in Democrats in the state of Maine and NEVER, EVER mentioning Bush.  She also faced a very weak Democratic candidate who really had no chance of winning.

  However, her counterpart - Sen. Collins IS up for reelection and will be facing a more credible candidate (Rep. Tom Allen - Portland).

  It's still an uphill race to unseat her - but we will be working hard to remind Maine voters how close Collins has been with the Bush administration.

  by MaineMerlin on Thu May 03, 2007 at 02:11:16 PM PDT