Surrounded by applauding Republicans, President Bush on Thursday discovered the upside to growing Democratic criticism of his Iraq policy: a rally-around-the-president effect.
“We stand united,” Bush said on the steps of the North Portico of the White House, where he was joined by scores of GOP House members.
It was the first time Bush had invited the entire Republican House caucus to the White House. Part pep rally, part gripe session, the gathering was intended, in part, to counter perceptions that the president is estranged from Republican lawmakers.
“Bush is alone,” conservative columnist Robert Novak wrote this week. “In half a century, I have not seen a president so isolated from his own party in Congress.”
Yet Bush was anything but alone on Thursday, when he and more than 200 Republican lawmakers vowed to stick together in opposingDemocratic demands for a timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq. Bush described the session as “friends talking amongst friends, all aiming to put a strategy together of how we can work together to secure this nation and keep it prosperous.”
In case anyone missed the point, he added to the lawmakers, “You’re welcome back at the White House any time you want.”
House Minority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri called the meeting “a unifying session” for Republicans and argued that the GOP has demonstrated more cohesion in the dispute over Iraq than Democrats.
Bush seemed energized by the looming showdown with Democrats over Iraq. Recent polls show that although support for the war generally remains low, there has been an uptick in recent weeks as Bush has sent additional troops into Iraq amid signs of stabilization.
The White House believes now would be the worst time for setting a timetable for withdrawal. Bush plans to veto any Democratic timetables and demand that Congress stop linking a pullout to funding of U.S. forces.
Presidential spokeswoman Dana Perino urged Democrats to “get this show on the road, get the bill to the president, he will veto it, and then we’ll take it from there.”
The veto threat was called “reckless” by Sen. John Kerry.
“A deadline is the best strategy for ending Iraq’s civil war because it forces Iraqis to stand up for Iraq,” the Massachusetts Democrat said. “Guns alone cannot bring peace to Iraq.”
