Bob Corker: Consistent support for “staying the course”
- “And I think we should stay the course.” (Bob Corker on Iraq, 7/16/2006, WREG Memphis debate)
- Corker defends, supports Bush on Iraq: “Corker defended Bush’s resolve and strategy in Iraq. “I support the vision of the Iraqi government that has been on the ground. And I think we need to continue to do that,” Corker said.” (8/31/2006 Nashville City Paper)
- Corker refused to identify whether he differs with Bush on the conduct of Iraq War: “Asked Friday whether he differs with President Bush over the conduct of the Iraq War, Corker declined to identify specific differences yet and said he will lay out issue positions in the next two or three weeks. But he added, "I agree with President Bush on a number of issues and I disagree with him on a number of issues." (8/5/2006 Commercial Appeal)
- Corker says voters aren’t really interested in Iraq: "You really don't hear so much about the war in Iraq — it's actually surprising," said Corker. "You all (in the media) are asking about that issue. It's just not an issue that comes up a great deal on the campaign trail." (7/10/2006 AP/ Tennessean)
- Corker says that the US should not rush to bring troops back from Iraq: “The Valley Beautiful Beacon (2/1, Scalf) recounted Corker's visit last Tuesday to Rogersville, Greeneville and Erwin. In Rogersville, Corker "said of the Iraq War, 'We need to stay there for as long as it takes to get the job done. We are there in an effort to turn over control of the country to the Iraqi people but we [first] need to make sure their country is safe and secure." (2/2/2006 The Frontrunner)
A list of those distancing themselves from Bush on Iraq
- Republican US Senator Lindsay Graham calls Iraq a mess, says “we have screwed up seven ways from Sunday” and “underestimated how hard it would be.”: "I know Iraq is a mess and we have screwed up seven ways from Sunday," the South Carolina Republican told about 300 people at the College of Charleston on Sunday, the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. "We underestimated how hard it would be. But the fundamental idea behind Iraq is still correct," said Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.” AP, 09/11/06
- Senator Chuck Hagel said the Bush White House was disconnected from reality and losing the war: “Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), a Vietnam War veteran who is not up for re-election, said last year that the U.S. was "getting more and more bogged down" in Iraq and stood by his comments that the White House was disconnected from reality and losing the war. (LA Times, 08/26/06)
- Republican lawmaker Chris Shays distances himself from the Bush administration's war policy: “In a telephone interview Friday after he returned from his 14th trip to Iraq, Shays said that he believed the U.S. should consider setting a timetable for the withdrawal of its troops, and that he planned to hold congressional hearings on the question next month.
- Iraq's political leaders need a deadline to "do things in a timely basis." Otherwise, he said, "they will take years. And there aren't years available." (LA Times, 08/26/06)
- Conservative incumbent Gil Gutknecht recently stated “that Americans don't have "strategic control" of the streets of Baghdad and advocated a "limited troop withdrawal”: “In Minnesota's 1st District, conservative incumbent Gil Gutknecht has long supported the war. He made headlines recently when he returned from his first visit to Iraq, declared that Americans don't have "strategic control" of the streets of Baghdad and advocated a "limited troop withdrawal — to send the Iraqis a message."” (LA Times, 08/26/06)
- Republican congressman Walter B. Jones Jr. has said there was little reason to go to war and called on Bush to apologize for misinforming Congress: “In North Carolina, Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr., a staunch conservative whose district includes the Marine Corps base Camp Lejeune, originally supported the war. In 2005, he said there had been little reason to go to war and called on Bush to apologize for misinforming Congress.”
- Rich Lowry of the National Review flatly states, “Unless Bush turns the tide, Iraq could become his Vietnam”: For the past 30 years, left-right debate over America's wars has traveled a well-worn rut. The left says whatever war is in question is ''another Vietnam,'' while the right denies it. After three decades of being serially wrong, in the Iraq War liberals might be making their first-ever correct diagnosis. In Iraq, as in Vietnam, we face a vicious insurgency that has worn down the will of the American public. In Iraq, as in Vietnam, we have failed to cut off the enemy from re-supply. In Iraq, as in Vietnam, we have had ever-shifting military strategies. In Iraq, as in Vietnam, we have had trouble building effective, clean governmental institutions in the soil of an alien culture. Most importantly, in Iraq, as in Vietnam, we face the prospect of defeat.” (National Review, 08/16/06)
No more rubber stamps for George Bush's failures. It is time for a change.
It is time for a new generation of leadership.
