LAT -War May Hurt GOP in Heartland

[Tiggeroshii]

War May Hurt GOP in Heartland
Democrats hope that souring public opinion will swing parts of the country their way.
By Maura Reynolds and Johanna Neuman, Times Staff Writers
March 26, 2006


SEYMOUR, Ind. — As Liz Larrison cooks up breakfast for customers at her family's diner in a farm town long friendly to the Republican Party, she listens as the regulars sling political opinions as easily as she slings ham steaks.

Increasingly, the talk these days revolves around Iraq, and it is the kind of talk that could spell trouble for the GOP.
Nobody is against the people fighting the war. I think you'll hear that everywhere," she said. "We're just against it going on and on."

On top of other woes confronting Republicans, the continuing violence in Iraq and President Bush's message last week that the deployment would last several more years has heightened Republicans' concerns about how voters such as Larrison will view the party in the November elections.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-iraqpol26mar26,0,7789906.story?coll=la-home-nation

[THUNDER HANDS]

1. while I'm glad they're coming around

It doesn't help my opinion of them when it takes them three years to figure out something that took me three seconds to figure out - namely, that this war was a bad idea.

[Chevy]

2. The question is

what about an October surprise?How would the sheep react with an attack against Iran would they fall back in line or would they turn against Bush. A pre-emtive strike against Rove should
be in the works now saying that they are planning an attack against Iran for political purposes and would use possibly a terrorist attack on American soil planned by political allies of Bush as an excuse. They of course would deny it but it would put a big question mark on the minds of many.

[TexasLawyer]

3. top-secret briefing

A very interesting tid-bit on Page 2 of the article:

Hill said he had planned to vote against the war resolution until he was invited to the Pentagon for a top-secret briefing from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. There, Hill said, he was shown intelligence that suggested Iraq had the ability to attack the United States with weapons of mass destruction using unmanned aircraft.

That briefing "was a deliberate misrepresentation," Hill said, and his message to Indiana's independent-minded voters will be that "it's healthy for us to be skeptical."

[Tiggeroshii]

4. It's funny that legislatures have to learn that little tidbit of common

sense AFTER being in elected office.