Salvage has become the operative word for Republicans to describe their focus, both militarily and politically, as President Bush staggers toward the end of his eight-year reign in 2009.
The congressional testimonies of Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker were intended to buy more time for the president?s misadventure in Iraq, without much regard for the political damage it is inflicting on his Republican Party.
With Bush?s own credibility on the war near rock bottom, Petraeus the soldier and Crocker the diplomat were thrown into the breach as professional rather than political figures, as Bush strives to salvage some semblance of a positive legacy.
While they stuck to their professional roles and backed away from Bush-like predictions of victory or success in Iraq, they undeniably carried water for the president in his determination to stay the course, under the new euphemism of “a new way forward.”
Representing a future end of the 30,000 troop surge as a reduction while it would leave the strength at the pre-surge force level of 130,000 was a conspicuous part of what Democrat Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called “spinning.”
On the presidential campaign trail, all the surviving Republican presidential candidates except anti-war Rep. Ron Paul are locked in on the Bush war, despite some reservations. None has able so far to break out of the pack as a credible winner in what will be a very tough election for any Republican.
The long-awaited candidacy of former Sen. Fred Thompson was seen by many party conservatives as a salvage operation in itself, reflecting their dissatisfaction with the Republicans already running. His entry into the race was supposed to inject a ray of light into the general GOP gloom over the war and the chances of holding onto the White House in 2009.
But Thompson?s first days as a declared candidate have been unimpressive, and inconsistencies as a conservative true believer on such issues as abortion and campaign finance reform have already drawn much criticism within the party and the press.
The Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, have with few exceptions held the line against Democratic attempts to force Bush?s hand on ending the war. And his veto power seems likely to be decisive in keeping it going through the rest of his second term.
But other political developments suggest that if the 2008 election were held right now, not only the Republican hold on the presidency would be lost but the Democratic grip on Capitol Hill would be strengthened.
The announcements that veteran GOP Sens. John Warner of Virginia and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska will not seek reelection next year threaten the loss of two seats the Republicans can ill afford to surrender, with very strong Democratic candidates in the offing. A third seat, being vacated by Sen. Larry Craig in Wyoming, is considered likely to stay in GOP hands.
In Virginia, highly popular former Democratic Gov. Mark Warner would be favored to take that Republican seat. In Nebraska, former Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey, now president of the New School in New York and also a former governor, would pose a rigorous challenge for any Republican seeking to replace Hagel.
The retirements of Warner and Hagel will remove two of the most critical Republican voices in the Senate against Bush?s rigid conduct of the war in Iraq. But the elections of Mark Warner and Kerrey could be expected to continue and intensify such criticism.
Even before the announcements of these two Republican retirements, the outlook for the party to regain Senate control was grim, with 22 GOP seats at stake to only 12 Democratic, and with the traditional large Republican advantage in fund-raising for Senate races gone.
Usually when one party is in a critical political struggle to hold its control in Congress or to take over one or both legislative branches, party loyalty can dissuade incumbents from retirement. But in the cases of Sens. Warner and especially Hagel, their disapproval of the Bush war policy, as well as the prospect of serving six more years in the minority, apparently was more persuasive than pleas to stay.
Jules Witcover, a Baltimore Examiner columnist, is syndicated by Tribune Media Services. He has covered national affairs from Washington for more than 50 years and is the author of 11 books, and co-author of five others, on American politics and history.
