Eighteen House Democrats meet Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld to discuss Iraq

[deminks]

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Eighteen_House_Democrats_meet_Bush_Cheney_1215.html

As part of his two-week effort to regain credibility on the war in Iraq, President Bush and senior members of his Cabinet met privately with 18 moderate House Democrats on Wednesday in order to gauge their concerns and once again make the case for the war, ROLL CALL reports Thursday. Excerpts:

Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called the Democrats to the White House for the hour-long session. The meeting was held just one day before the Iraqi national elections.

Publicly, Democrats characterized the meeting as a positive give-and-take session. Privately, however, some worried that the White House may be trying to provide itself political cover

The 18 Democrats included at least four ranking members — Reps. John Spratt (S.C.) of Budget, Jane Harman (Calif.) of Intelligence, Tom Lantos (Calif.) of International Relations and Ike Skelton (Mo.) of Armed Services — as well as other Democrats who either voted for the October 2002 resolution authorizing U.S. involvement in Iraq or have not embraced a timeline for troop withdrawal.

[Cha]

1. In other words..

Dino dems who for one reason or another have been drinking spiked kookaid.

[3days]

2. I'm sure

Lieberman was sitting on poppys lap.

[Cha]

3. Or right next

to him..

[mike_c]

4. dinos licking the master's boots....

He musta stepped in sumthin'.

[SpiralHawk]

5. Something BIG is gonna POP. I can feel it in my bones...

...the way things are going...

Hmmmm? Will have to consult the Mighty Mighty Oracle Beans.

[november3rd]

6. Toxic

Bush is "scraping the bottom of the barrel" for Democrat "cast-offs." My guess is that they won't bite.

No matter what they were thinking beforehand, that meeting room must have smelled like amonia or sulfur dioxide. All you have to do to get sick to your stomach is be in the same room with those three and hear them open their mouths.

Besides, @39% approval, what'ld the folks back home say?

[flordehinojos]

7. and they think bush is going to listen to them? oh, no. wait. i misread

the post. initially, i thought they called on bush to have bush listen to them. then, i realized that, they were called by bush, condoleezzaa lice, cheney and rumsfeld. they are being called by these criminals in the white house to receive instructions. to be told to follow them. and to be threatened that if they don't follow instructions, there will be severe consequences... in the same way, and of the same sort that others have been threatened with whose lives have been taken away.

[MisterP]

8. later they will come back and condescendingly lecture to us all

how ESSENTIAL they are and how we NEED them...
and here's the RollCall link:
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/1_1/breakingnews/11603-1.html

[Solly Mack]

9. Anyone, and I do mean anyone, that thinks Bush can "regain"

what he never had, "credibility on the war in Iraq" , is not looking out for what's best for America - and they're also self-serving sacks of shit.

Bush has no credibility, period. And he most certainly has NEVER had credibility about Iraq.

Can't "regain" something you've never had - and it's a LIE to pretend otherwise.

[gratuitous]

10. It's House Democrats, so Lieberman wouldn't be there

And Jane Harman is nobody's fool. What this says to me is that the Bush White House is finally feeling the pressure. They haven't felt any need to reach across the aisle in the last five years, as long as they could parade a Zell Miller or a Joe Lieberman around for the illusion of consensus or bipartisanship.

The polite way to come out of such a meeting is to make nice noises about a positive give-and-take, and it looks like the Democrats did that. Then you put the White House's feet to the fire to keep meeting or you drop the gloves and give them more of the same kind of hell that caused them to invite you there in the first place.

Not every political maneuver has to be "Hulk Smash!" to have a good result.

[Johnyawl]

11. Pelosa's people have it right

An aide to Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told the paper the president should “also reach out to Members who disagree with him.”

“We’ve said all along he should talk more to Congress and have a dialogue,” spokesman Brendan Daly said. “But he should also talk to people who don’t agree with him, who didn’t vote for the war. He needs to hear dissenting views on this because obviously what he’s doing now isn’t working.”

I see those chickenshit chickenhawks didn't invite Murtha.