Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia got lots of positive air time and headlines last week when he urged President Bush to order troop withdrawals from Iraq even before Gen. David Petraeus delivers his long-awaitedreport to Congress on the status of the military surge.
Warner’s call for an “unsurge” ended a week in which numerous Democrats talked at length about the significant progress they saw in Iraq as a result of the surge. The Democratic front is no longer united in favor of unilateral U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.
Warner’s curious idea — which gave the mainstream media a desperately desired alternative to reporting cracks in the Democratic ranks for unilateral U.S. withdrawal — boils down to this: We’re making real progress with more troops, so let’s have fewer troops. The most charitable spin here is that Liz Taylor’s 80-year-old former husband had a senior moment. Warner’s plan lacks the same crucial element that is missing from all calls for U.S. withdrawals — how to then prevent the inevitable bloodbath in Iraq and Iran’s subsequent annexation of its neighbor to convert it into a massive launching pad for fresh waves of deadly terrorist attacks against America, Europe and Israel.
Whatever Warner’s motives, his actions provide a case study for Republicans who hunger for approval by America’s liberal intellectual and media elite. It’s not news when Democrats oppose Bush, but watch how quickly the media pack shifts into group salivation as a Senate Republican-In-Name-Only throws principle overboard and moves left. Sadly, these RINOs always discover too late that fame thus won is fleeting.
Remember Warner and the other Republicans among the “Gang of 14” who kept GOP congressional leaders from stopping Democratic filibusters that blocked qualified conservative judicial nominees? After being briefly lionized by the mainstream media, Gang members Mike DeWine of Ohio and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island lost their seats in 2006, Maine’s Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are targeted for defeat in 2008, John McCain’s “Straight Talk Express” derailed and Lindsay Graham’s political stock headed south. Lesson: Liberal journalists flatter RINOsonly so long as it advances the Democrats’ objectives.
Warner had a solid record as secretary of the Navy and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. It would be a shame if instead he’s most remembered for sounding retreat just when the tide of battle in Iraq was turning America’s way.
