WASHINGTON, April 18 — After weeks of acrimonious sparring over financing the next phase of the war, President Bush and Congressional leaders softened their tone on Wednesday but failed to resolve their differences over a timeline for removing most American combat troops from Iraq next year.
Mr. Bush met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the White House for nearly an hour, the first face-to-face discussion since the House and Senate passed emergency Iraq spending bills last month with provisions to end the war. Democrats said they would send the president legislation by the end of next week, despite his pledge to veto it.
“We believe he must search his soul, his conscience, and find out what is the right thing for the American people,” Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic majority leader, told reporters after the meeting. “I believe signing this bill will do that.”
The White House, though, said Mr. Bush had no intention of signing any legislation that included a call for a troop withdrawal. Democrats do not have enough support to override a veto, so the debate over financing the troops remains at an impasse.
[....]
At the beginning of the meeting, Mr. Bush declared, “People have strong opinions around the table and I’m looking forward to listening to them.” And for the next hour, according to participants and aides in the room, a frank conversation unfolded between the president and the 10 legislative leaders seated around the table in the Cabinet Room.
A White House official who attended the meeting, and spoke on condition of anonymity in order to describe details, said Mr. Bush’s first question to the Democratic leaders was, “When can you get me a bill?”
[....]
The House passed a bill calling for troops to be withdrawn no later than Sept. 1, 2008, or earlier if the Iraqi government does not meet a series of benchmarks. The Senate measure would begin a gradual redeployment of troops in four months, but set a goal for troops to be removed by March 31, 2008.
According to several participants at the meeting, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered to accept the Senate timelines. But Mr. Bush and Republican leaders said they would not support any deadlines.
As she left the White House, Ms. Pelosi called the session a “productive meeting.”
“We came here in a spirit of hope,” she said, “recognizing that this is an historic opportunity for the executive branch, for the president and the Congress to work together to wind down this war and to ensure the security of our country and the stability of the region.”
Gee--a very productive, very civil meeting between President Bush and the congressional Democrats Reid and Pelosi. Everyone is playing nice in front of the TV cameras. But what really went on behind the closed White House doors? How about some very harsh, nasty words spoken in that meeting? The NY Times only made a passing reference to the terse, anger that reverberated within the meeting:
During the meeting, Mr. Bush was the only administration official who spoke, though he was accompanied by Vice President Dick Cheney, the White House chief of staff, Joshua B. Bolten, the national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, and others.
Members of the group, which included four senators and six representatives, all spoke, including Mr. Reid, who compared the Iraq war to the Vietnam War and suggested to Mr. Bush that he should not continue with the war simply to protect his legacy. The president was visibly angered by the comment, according to aides, but he did not respond directly.
The way the NY Times reports this comment, it is almost like poor little President Bush is being beaten up by that bad bully Harry Reid. And while Bush was angered by the comment, he took it like a man and did not attack Reid for this comment. But I would say that there is more to this story. TPM Cafe's Greg Sargent provides some juicy details of this meeting:
A source familiar with the meeting -- at which no compromise of any kind was reached, though Speaker Nancy Pelosi said publicly today that it had been "productive" -- shares a few interesting tidbits. First, the source says, Bush bristled and was taken aback when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid compared the current situation to Vietnam; he also appeared irked by those who said the war couldn't be won.
Second, according to the source, Reid told Bush that he understood that the White House would come after Congressional Dems after the veto of the bill with everything they had; Reid vowed to respond every bit as aggressively.
"Reid talked about a recent conversation he had with a retired general where they talked about the similarities between the current situation and Vietnam," the source relates. "He talked about how the President and Secretary of Defense [during Vietnam] knew that the war was lost but continued to press on at the cost of thousands of additional lives lost."
"The analogy to Vietnam appeared to touch a nerve with the President. He appeared a little sensitive to it," the source continued. "And he clearly didn't like to hear people in the room say that the war couldn't be won militarily."
More: "Reid made it clear to the President that he understood that the President and Vice President after the veto would come after him and Speaker Pelosi with everything they have. Reid said that he and Pelosi would respond just as aggressively. He said he was convinced that they were on the right side of the issue."
It would appear to me that Bush has been caught playing his own bluff. For seven years, this administration has gotten whatever it wanted through bullying, outright threats, and political smear tactics. With a Democratic Congress, President Bush is now faced with not just a strong, revitalized opposition party, but also his own inability to seek or accept compromise. Look at this meeting itself. Reid and Pelosi attend a White House meeting with a president who declares outright that he will only accept a blank check troop funding bill with no timelines or restrictions. This is a president who wants to continue this Iraq war until after his predecessor (More than likely a Democratic president) takes office, thus absolving any blame on the Bush White House for "losing" Iraq and safeguarding President Bush's "legacy." Harry Reid told President Bush that this is the way things are now--Iraq is like Vietnam, it is a war that was lost by President Bush himself, and young Americans are no longer going to die uselessly in Iraq just so that this president can salvage his failed, presidential legacy here. It is no wonder that Bush got angry at Reid
He couldn't handle the truth.
There is just one more detail to talk about regarding this meeting. Both Reid and Pelosi just about told President Bush to go ahead and veto the troop funding bill. Because if President Bush does veto the troop funding bill, then both Reid and Pelosi will aggressively go after the president on Iraq. President Bush is stuck in a very weakened position here. The war in Iraq is a complete disaster. The Bush surge plan is failing, the American public has not only turned against the war, but also are siding with the Democrats in Congress over the president regarding the standoff in the war funding. The Bush Bubble Boy is not only completely isolated here, but his world is now falling apart.
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