Santorum: Bush’s Iraq Approach Is ‘Lincolnesque’
Santorum: Bush’s Iraq Approach Is ‘Lincolnesque’
Today on Fox News, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) said President Bush’s approach to the war in Iraq, particularly his recent speech, was “Lincolnesque.”
Fox Host Martha MacCallum asked Santorum what he thought of the criticism that President Bush “is just going his own way, not listening to the people, not listening to Congress.” Santorum responded, “Good for him.” Santorum also added that Bush understands, but most people aren’t aware, that we are already at war with Iran. Watch it:
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Top Commander Downplays Impact Of Escalation, No Significant Effect ‘Until Summer Or Fall’
Top Commander Downplays Impact Of Escalation, No Significant Effect ‘Until Summer Or Fall’
President Bush’s plan for escalating the war in Iraq has begun and, barring an intervention from Congress, over 20,000 more U.S. troops will soon be in the crossfire of a brutal civil war.
The top generals on the ground are trying to keep expectations low. Yesterday, Gen. George Casey, the outgoing top U.S. military commander in Iraq, warned that it is “going to take time” and no one should evaluate the impact of the plan until “summer or Fall.” Watch it:
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Bush’s rallying cry backfires.
“President Bush’s address to the nation last week outlining a ‘new way forward’ in Iraq failed to move public opinion in support of his plan to increase U.S. troop levels and left Americans more pessimistic about the likely outcome of the war.”
Everything is Unacceptable.
“In six years in office, President Bush has found a lot of things to be unacceptable — most recently, the situation in Iraq.” The Swamp has the full rundown.
Will Bush make a climate U-turn?
Senior British officials say Bush “is preparing to make a historic shift in his position on global warming when he makes his State of the Union speech later this month.”
Bush: I’m Sending More Troops To Iraq No Matter What Congress Does
Bush: I’m Sending More Troops To Iraq No Matter What Congress Does
This week, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) introduced a resolution requiring President Bush to gain new congressional authorization before escalating the War in Iraq.
President Bush, however, says that he is going to send more troops to Iraq no matter what Congress does. Watch an excerpt from his 60 Minutes interview tonight:
Legal scholars on the right and left agree that Congress has the legal power to prevent an escalation or end the war completely.
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Snow: Michelle Malkin Is A Soldier In The ‘New Media War’ On Biased Iraq Coverage
Snow: Michelle Malkin Is A Soldier In The ‘New Media War’ On Biased Iraq Coverage
The American public overwhelmingly opposes Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq and the White House blames the media. Yesterday on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, Tony Snow vowed to fight a “new media war” to combat the coverage:
HH: All right, yesterday, the President also mentioned that there will be lots of carnage on television screens. Is the administration, and especially the Pentagon, prepared to fight the new media war when that starts to happen, Tony Snow?
TS: We’ve been fighting it. I mean, it’s not that it has started to happen, it’s been going on for some time.
Snow specifically cited right-wing blogger Michelle Malkin, who is currently embedded in Iraq, as a soldier for truth in the “media war”:
What is interesting, Hugh, and you know this as well as anybody else, you’re also starting to see little glimmers of guys like Michael Yon and others who get over there and they basically embed themselves in Iraq, and Michelle Malkin’s over there now.
Several times during the interview, Tony Snow referenced Malkin’s work on the Jamil Hussein “story.”
Michelle Malkin has been obsessed in recent months claiming that Hussein — an Iraqi policeman cited as a source by the Associated Press in a story about the burning of six people during a sectarian attack — does not exist. The Iraqi government recently debunked the conspiracy theory, acknowledging that the AP’s source was in fact a police officer in Iraq.
Great moments in Bush’s Iraq speeches.
MSNBC takes a look back from “this will not be a campaign of half-measures” to “mistakes have been made.”
Fox News Anchor Calls Ted Kennedy A ‘Hostile Enemy Right Here On The Home Front’
Fox News Anchor Calls Ted Kennedy A ‘Hostile Enemy Right Here On The Home Front’
This morning on Fox News, anchor Gretchen Carlson called Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) a “hostile enemy” of the United States because he has demanded that Congress vote on whether to approve funding for escalation in Iraq. In an interview with White House counselor Dan Bartlett, Carlson compared Kennedy to insurgents and terrorists in Iraq, saying that Kennedy represented the same kind of force “right here on the home front.” Watch it:
Dan Bartlett disagreed, saying that the White House doesn’t “view Ted Kennedy as a hostile enemy” of the United States.
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FACT CHECK: Congress Has Repeatedly Placed Limits On Military Deployments And Funding
FACT CHECK: Congress Has Repeatedly Placed Limits On Military Deployments And Funding
Tomorrow night at 9 p.m. EST, President Bush will address the nation and announce an escalation of the war in Iraq by sending about 20,000 more U.S. troops to Iraq. Can Congress do anything about it?
Some members have claimed that anything other than symbolic action is unconstitutional. Legal scholars on both the left and the right say that’s false. History supports their case.
A new report from the Center for American Progress details how, over the last 35 years, Congress has passed bills, enacted into law, that capped the size of military deployments, prohibited funding for existing or prospective deployment, and placed limits and conditions on the timing and nature of deployments. Some examples:
December 1970. P.L. 91-652 — Supplemental Foreign Assistance Law. The Church-Cooper amendment prohibited the use of any funds for the introduction of U.S. troops to Cambodia or provide military advisors to Cambodian forces.
December 1974. P.L. 93-559 — Foreign Assistance Act of 1974. The Congress established a personnel ceiling of 4000 Americans in Vietnam within six months of enactment and 3000 Americans within one year.
June 1983. P.L. 98-43 — The Lebanon Emergency Assistance Act of 1983. The Congress required the president to return to seek statutory authorization if he sought to expand the size of the U.S. contingent of the Multinational Force in Lebanon.
June 1984. P.L. 98-525 — The Defense Authorization Act. The Congress capped the end strength level of United States forces assigned to permanent duty in European NATO countries at 324,400.
November 1993. P.L. 103-139. The Congress limited the use of funding in Somalia for operations of U.S. military personnel only until March 31, 1994, permitting expenditure of funds for the mission thereafter only if the president sought and Congress provided specific authorization.
Read the full report for more examples.