President Bush faced reporters for his first full-scale, solo news conference in three months savoring what may be a last victory in his battle with Congress over the course of the war in Iraq.
Hours later, the House and Senate would deliver to the White House $100 billion in war funding, shorn of the timelines intended to end the U.S. mission by early next year.
By refusing to budge on demanding a no-strings-attached bill, Bush forced congressional Democrats to back off, at least temporarily, from their efforts to end the war by including conditions on a war funding bill. It was a sign that while Bush's popularity may be scraping historic lows, he still has some stick in Washington.
But the ground beneath the president on the issue remains precarious, as he himself recognized yesterday in addressing Iraq, which was the focus of questioning during a 50-minute session in the Rose Garden. There was little gloating over his victory in Congress, only praise of bipartisanship and a sober new warning to the Iraqi government to shape up.
"As it provides vital funds for our troops, this bill also reflects a consensus that the Iraqi government needs to show real progress in return for America's continued support and sacrifice," Bush said, alluding to the bill's setting of benchmarks for the Iraqi government to achieve security and political reconciliation.
Bush also hinted at a possible change in military strategy, saying on three different occasions that he liked the recommendation of the Iraq Study Group, headed by former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former congressman Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.), to shift U.S. troops from combat to a training mission.
Although the president was initially tepid to the panel's report last December, Bush said its ideas now appeal to him because they offer "a kind of long-term basis" for stabilizing Iraq. "I believe this is an area where . . . we can find common ground with Democrats and Republicans," he said.
Back in December, President Bush said NYET to the Iraq Study Group. In fact, according to a December 8, 2006 Washington Post article, Bush vowed to come up with a new strategy in Iraq, saying "The American people expect us to come up with a new strategy to achieve the objective which I've been talking about...." That new strategy was the Bush troop surge. What is so ironic is that as the troop surge is failing, President Bush is going back to the original Iraq Study Group recommendations. Just pretend that the last six months of the failed Bush troop surge didn't exist.
I'm guessing that President Bush will probably demand that the Democratic Congress fund his "New" New Strategy for achieving victory in the Iraq war:
Does this thing come with an optional DVD player?
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