Desperate circumstances often lead to crazy thinking. I will illustrate with two recent examples.
#1: A group of Republicans feeling the Iraq heat thinks that they can talk Bush out of his absolutist stance on the war:
A diverse collection of House Republicans has formed an ad hoc group to negotiate with the White House on a compromise Iraq spending bill, Politico’s Ryan Grim reports. The group plans to hold talks with National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, who has been working behind the scenes to cement opposition among Republicans to the spending bill that would require U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq at some point.
The group includes five Republicans, diverse in geography and ideology: Reps. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, Charles Boustany of Louisiana, Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska, Mac Thornberry of Texas and Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland. Of the five, only Gilchrest broke with his party to support a timeline for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.
Now, Gilchrest says the group will encourage the White House to compromise on negotiations with Syria and Iran and on setting a date for withdrawal from Iraq. And the group has national security bona fides that will help it be taken seriously.
Rep. Gilchrist is more or less saying to the president, we’ve kept loyal to you for years. Sometimes it cost us dearly. Now maybe you can return the favor. Ha ha. Rep. Gilchrist should know that this president values loyalty above practically everything, sure, but his definition differs a bit from ours. To understand the kind of loyalty that an entitled old-money aristocrat like Bush expects from his allies, look up fealty.
Unless Rep. Gilchrist has a veto-busting coalition in his breast pocket he can save himself a trip.
Example #2: Rep. Phil Gingrey has another strategy.
Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA), who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, told “Hardball” fill-in host David Gregory that if the ‘surge’ has not yielded success in Iraq by August 2008, then “this president, and the Republican majority from the last Congress, we do have a ‘Plan B,’ but we’re not going to give it to the enemy.”
Gregory did not push him to shed light on the back up plan, but Gingrey conceded that “adjustments” would need to be made if victory had not be achieved in Iraq by August 2008.
Yes, a secret plan. Maybe Gingrey has some secret infantry divisions under his House desk. A written treaty with Ahmedinejad, Muqtada al-Sadr and whoever is runninng the Sunnis this week that takes effect as soon as Republicans regain Congress?* The possibilities are endless, or they would be if we lived on a happy planet where our options didn’t boil down to either leaving now, or spending some more blood and treasure, wrecking our army and then leaving. I’m sure that in Jan. 2009 Speaker Gingrey won’t admit, yeah my plan looks a lot like Pelosi’s plan, except I get credit for it. Suckers.
This is a thoroughly non-inclusive list. If you know any other examples of Iraqageddon inspiring millenialist thinking in Republicans, have at in the comments.
(*) Also included: Kurdish independence resolved without inflaming Turkey, Kirkuk ethnicity settled and the domestic terrorist groups retrained as call center workers for Geico.