Bush Risks Alienating GOP Over Iraq War
by TOM RAUM
President Bush's efforts to paint Democrats as hypocrites for criticizing the Iraq war after they once warned that Saddam Hussein was a grave threat could backfire on Republicans.
Polls show marked declines in support for the war, notably among moderate Republicans, especially Republican women, and independents — voting blocs that the GOP needs to woo or keep in their camp.
If Bush castigates Democrats for changing their minds on the war, he might wind up alienating Republicans who have done so, too.
The administration has been engaging in a rhetorical high-wire act in its efforts to defend its use of prewar intelligence — so much that some analysts have likened it to President Clinton's remark in his deposition on the Monica Lewinsky case: "That depends on what the definition of 'is' is."
Bush and his advisers have conceded that the administration was wrong in its assessment of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. invasion. So the debate centers on whether they misled members of Congress and the American people... http://tinyurl.com/a2whs
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