California Conservative

The AP’s Tom Raum is back to his old tricks, this time by saying: “Most presidents get a boost from overseas trips. President Bush, though, may return from Asia wondering why he left U.S. soil in the first place.”

Raum goes on to say that:

• While Bush was away:
• The Senate signaled impatience with the war’s direction by voting 79-19 to require regular reports on progress in Iraq and urging that 2006 be “a period of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty.”
• Increasingly rebellious Republicans defied their leaders on domestic spending cuts. House leaders narrowly won approval of a five-year budget cut plan in the wee hours of Friday on a 217-215 vote.
• The top House Democrat on military spending, Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, withdrew his support for the war and advocated a pullout over six months. That brought sharp criticism from the White House and led to tumultuous late-night battle when the GOP leaders forced a vote on an immediate pullout measure in hopes of trapping Democrats. It was rejected 403-3.

Let’s go through these talking points one by one.

When Raum says that “The Senate signaled impatience with the war’s direction by voting 79-19 to require regular reports on progress in Iraq and urging that 2006 be “a period of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty”, he’s technically right but it’s meaningless because that resolution isn’t binding.

The other factor to consider is that Senate Republicans offered that amendment for political cover. That became useless when the House Republicans called the Democrats’ bluff by forcing a vote on ‘The Murtha Retreat’.

His point that some GOP legislators have gotten “increasingly rebellious” is a legitimate point but that, too, will change now that the White House is fighting back on the issue of the Iraq war. The ever-shifting ‘moderates’ (the more appropriate characterization is that they’re paranoid poll-watchers) got rebellious because the polls reflected the White House’s inaction in fighting back against the lies Joe Wilson and Harry Reid have been telling. It’s also worth noting that the measure passed despite these “increasingly rebellious” legislators rebellion.

Finally, when Raum says that “GOP leaders forced a vote on an immediate pullout measure in hopes of trapping Democrats”, he’s right, they did. The fact that only 3 Democrats voted for the resolution is itself a trap because now they’re on the record as saying that they don’t favor immediate withdrawal of the troops.

Yes, we know that they’ll say that they’re for getting the troops out as expeditiously as possible but that isn’t what Murtha called for in his press conference. Since that afternoon, he’s been in full-fledged and rapid retreat because Arizona’s J.D. Hayworth raised the idea of getting Democrats on the record on where they stood on retreat. Had Hayworth not forced the issue, I doubt that Murtha would’ve retreated from his initial statement.

As it is, now Democrats can either change their position and imperil themselves politically or they can stick with their recorded votes. If they change their positions, they’ll branded as spineless political opportunists. If they stick with their recorded votes, they’ll lose that entire debate because that’ll negate the last 3 months of posturing as the ‘Almost Anti-War’ party. It also causes them to just say ‘me too’ to the consistent Republican position.

That’s the epitome of getting trapped.

“My colleagues are getting nervous,” said Sen. John McCain, (R-AZ). “We talk a lot about the president’s unfavorable ratings. Have you noticed the ratings of Congress lately?” The AP-Ipsos poll showed that only 32 percent of those surveyed said they approved of the job Congress was doing.

Yes, it’s true that Senate Republicans have been getting nervous. Chalk that up in part to their being ‘Nervous Nellies’ by nature and in part due to the White House’s inaction if refuting the Democrats’ lies the past couple of months. With the renewed sense of urgency that the President and Vice President have been showing, don’t be surprised if these senators’ spines stiffen up again.

Further contributing to that anxiety are concerns that older people, who make up an active voting bloc, will be frustrated by the level of benefits under the new Medicare prescription drug plan that takes effect early in 2006. The growing GOP restiveness is making it harder for Bush to have his way.

This is pure speculation at this point. Mr. Raum is famous for writing about unverifiable possibilities. In this instance, he writes about something that hasn’t been on the radar screen at all as if it’s happening on a frequent basis. This isn’t reporting. It’s attempting to cause worries based on peoples’ inherent concerns about change of any sort.

In the end, this is yet another of Mr. Raum’s attempts to make news rather than report it. In the end, Mr. Raum’s more known on the blogosphere for being the master of speculation than on being a reporter or analyst.

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRing

This entry was posted on Monday, November 21st, 2005 at 7:54 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Domestic Policies, Elections, Iraq. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.