January 19, 2007 -- 9:45 AM EST // //
MEMO TO MEDIA: THE PARTY THAT'S IN DISARRAY OVER IRAQ IS THE GOP.
I wanted to make one more point about this whole question of whether Democratic disunity is hampering the party's ability to block President Bush's war policies.
For days now the media has been obsessively insinuating that those squabbling Dems are just too consumed with upstaging each other to be able to help solve the Iraq problem. For instance, as noted below, the Washington Post's Dana Milbank devoted two columns in a row to lampooning this alleged disunity, to the point where he even misrepresented quotes and withheld key info in order to tell the story this way. And Milbank wasn't at all the only reporter frolicking around in this fashion. MSNBC, the Times Caucus blog and others also went mad trying to prove -- the facts be damned -- that Hillary Clinton canceled her Iraq press conference because she was concerned about being upstaged by Barack Obama's entry into the Presidential race.
Yet while all those stories were being told, here's what was happening on the GOP side of the aisle, according to Roll Call:
GOP Struggles for War UnityEven as a bipartisan group of Senators unveiled a nonbinding resolution Wednesday opposing President Bush’s plan to boost troop levels in Iraq by 21,500 soldiers, Republican leaders were fighting a losing battle to maintain a unified front in support of the White House and were hunkering down for what could be a months-long political storm over the Iraq War.
The tensions among Congressional Republicans spilled into the public Wednesday during a press conference by Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Joseph Biden (D-Del.) to unveil the bipartisan “surge” resolution. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) endorsed the resolution later in the day.
But as the lawmakers were detailing the proposal, the office of Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) sent out a blistering press release accusing the sponsors of playing politics with the Iraq issue and questioning the seriousness of proposing a nonbinding resolution.
Hagel, a Vietnam veteran, bristled at the charges. “To somehow come to the conclusion that it’s a ‘lack of seriousness,’ I’m a little befuddled by the Senator from Texas,” Hagel said, adding that those who “question the motivation of someone who challenges the president ... need a little more schooling on this business.”...
Despite lobbying from President Bush, Cheney and other top administration officials, GOP leadership aides said their party is too fractured on Iraq for a unified position...“At some point twisting arms has the opposite effect. You don’t want to go around pissing off the [Ohio Republican Sen. George] Voinoviches of the world,” the aide said.
In other words, the GOP is in complete disarray over Iraq, in such a way that's creating lots of very good political theater. And this disarray is the direct result of the fact that Republicans are furiously positioning themselves because of reelection pressures and other political reasons. So when will we see oh-so-knowing "sketches" in The Washington Post of these silly, squabbling, politically-posturing Republicans? When will we hear speculation and joke-cracking about them from cable's talking heads? When will we get barbed insinuations about them from Times "bloggers"? When? When? When?
Chumps.