It’s tradition that before each Congressional recess, House Republican leaders prepare recess briefing packets for their Members. The goal is to ensure that they’re up-to-date when they head home, and have a quick summary of any important issues they may hear about while conducting events in their districts. The WWS has received the recess briefing packets being distributed by leadership to Republican Members, which are now available online. The first thing you notice is that they are much longer and more thorough than any of recent vintage. So if some House Republican is exposed as uninformed on a key issue, it won’t be for lack of reading material. (Similarly, if one is suffering insomnia, the cure is here.) There are two briefing books–one entitled ‘The War Against Radical Militant Islamists,’ and another on all other issues. Together they total almost 80 pages of talking points, news articles, charts, and graphs. The documents are pretty authoritative, distilling the key arguments that Republicans are now making regarding everything going on in the House. Since Iraq is far and away the central issue, I’ll highlight just a few of the points made by Conference Chairman Adam Putnam and his team. In the document’s introductory letter, Putnam notes the recent reports of success in Operation Phantom Thunder, and then says:
That last point in particular, is important to remember as we approach September 15. What’s most striking about this document is the emphasis on the success of Operation Phantom Thunder. It was just a few weeks ago that the media was tripping over itself to write stories about Republicans in Washington running from the war. A read of this document makes pretty clear that those days are behind. A particularly handy reference for Republican Members of Congress will be the ‘facts and myths’ section (pages 12-16), which addresses each of the arguments being offered against the war: that the war is lost, that the US is arming Sunni insurgents against the government, that our commitment is open-ended, that Iraqis are not risking enough to establish their government, and others. If you’re interested in anything that Congress has done — or in more cases, has failed to do — in the first 7 months of Democratic leadership, take some time and review the sections of the papers that interest you. if you’re interested in Iraq, the briefing book is an easily accessible reference for what’s going on now — and what to expect in the near future.
