A GOP Lawmaker Grapples With Troop Escalation

[cal04]

Like Peers Facing 2008 Races, He Must Decide How Much Support to Show Bush Plan

Rep. Charlie Dent wrestled all week with President Bush's plan to send more U.S. troops to Iraq.

On Monday, the two-term Republican from eastern Pennsylvania told a hometown reporter that it would take "a pretty hard sell" for Bush to win him over. He fretted Wednesday about the Iraqis: "Are they going to be up to the task?" By Thursday evening, 24 hours after Bush's address from the White House library, he was nursing huge doubts and a jumble of emotions.

(snip)
Republican reaction to the troop escalation plan has ranged from lukewarm to hostile. The negative statements that piled up Wednesday night after Bush's speech revealed a deepening political schism between a president whose campaign days are behind him and congressional Republicans who must face voters in two short years.

(snip)
To Democrats, the message from voters in November was clear. "The American people want a change of direction in Iraq," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "They certainly did not have in mind a major escalation."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/13/AR2007011301000.html

[calimary]

1. Good-good-good! The Tight-Sphincter Club is enlarging. Even while

their butt holes are shrinking! :rofl:

I must say, I rather like that - The Tight-Sphincter Club.