Bush concedes some ground on Iraq

Two days ago, 11 GOP leaders met with the President and his war cabinet and passed along the message that the party could no longer sustain Republican support for the Iraq war.

During a speech today, Bush showed signs that he might be getting the message -- well, to some extent.  The President said he is all of a sudden open to the idea of benchmarks.  However, he opposes the part of the bill that calls for him to seek funding every two months:

President Bush said today that he was willing to work with lawmakers toinclude benchmarks for the performance of the Iraqi government in a warspending bill, something members of both parties have been vigorouslyseeking.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty in funding when it comes to two-monthcycles, so we reject that idea,” Mr. Bush told reporters during aPentagon visit. “I’ll veto the bill if it’s this haphazard, piecemealfunding — and I’ve made that clear.”

White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolton will negotiate with the Congress on a new bill.  But it is still unclear, comparatively speaking, how much influence Bolton has over Bush.  In other words, Dick Cheney might not want any sort of compromise, and could persuade Bush into standing his ground.

We are expecting that by the end of this weekend more information will come out about that meeting between Bush and GOP leaders.

Comments

[granny]

Bush et. al are not "negotiating". They are chipping away until a bill is designed that allows them an out / that will leave room to put the blame for failure somewhere else...