Obama Camp Hits Back At Bush's Claim That Dems Favor "Appeasement"
Offering yet another reminder of why his approval rating hovers in the 20s, President Bush yet again hauled out a political tactic that has been failing for the GOP for literally years now, likening the willingness of "some" -- apparently meaning Obama and other Dems -- to negotiate with hostile foreign powers to "appeasement."
Intriguingly, Bush called this willingness to negotiate -- which is supported by majorities of the American people -- something that had been "discredited by history," a claim that requires one to completely forget that the last seven years ever happened.
"It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 6Oth anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack," retorted Obama, via spokesperson Bill Burton. "It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel."
Bush made the remarks today while in Israel. The exchange provides an early glimpse of the argument that Obama and McCain are likely to have over foreign policy in the run-up to the general election.
Obama's full response after the jump.
"It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 6Oth anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack. It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel. Instead of tough talk and no action, we need to do what Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan did and use all elements of American power -- including tough, principled, and direct diplomacy -- to pressure countries like Iran and Syria. George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the President's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel."
Please keep talking, Bush. Keep reminding people you're still around. This is the best thing Obama could hope for.
May 15, 2008 9:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
totally agreed
May 15, 2008 9:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
You know, I started to quote Keith Olbermann from last night: "shut the hell up," but I think you guys are right.
May 15, 2008 9:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Piling on. The more Bush speaks, the better Obama will do.
May 15, 2008 10:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
I so agree. Problem here is that bush wants to "secure a legacy" - as if that were possible now. So he'll keep talking. But his party wants him to just go away.... they're on a collision course!
This is going to be so much fun - on our end!
♪♪♪
May 15, 2008 10:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
I feel like Flounder in "Animal House":
"Isn't this GREAT?"
May 15, 2008 11:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh yes. If people see this as Bush v. Obama, it will be a landslide of epic proportions. Hell, at this point Bush v. A Ham Sandwich would probably be a landslide of epic proportions.
May 15, 2008 11:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
emptywheel has a beautiful post linking bush's remarks to his grandfather's (nazi) profiteering:
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/05/15/grandson-of-nazi-enabler-decries-talking-to-nazis/
May 15, 2008 12:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is McCain's "man, why won't my crazy pastor just shut up until November?" type moment.
May 15, 2008 9:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
I forget where I read it, but someone made the point that everyone had a Rev. Wright.
Obama's has the Rev. Wright; McCain has Bush; and Hillary has Bill.
May 15, 2008 9:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Pretty much. Except Obama's the only one willing or able to distance himself from his controversial associate.
May 15, 2008 9:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
If the Iranians are indeed the Nazis, which is worse:
1) Talking with them
2) Continuing to be the best customer for their #1 import while showing no leadership to reduce our addiction to their oil?
May 15, 2008 9:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
For Bush to be talking about Nazis is to ironic considering his grandfather made millions by trading with the nazis during the war (an act of treason.)
May 15, 2008 9:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
More on Bush's family and the nazis:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.
The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.
His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.
The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator's action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
The debate over Prescott Bush's behaviour has been bubbling under the surface for some time. There has been a steady internet chatter about the "Bush/Nazi" connection, much of it inaccurate and unfair. But the new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that even after America had entered the war and when there was already significant information about the Nazis' plans and policies, he worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler's rise to power. It has also been suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty.
May 15, 2008 10:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
All true, but of course the debating principle that he who mentions Hitler (or the Nazis) first in internet conversations... loses the argument.
Unfortunately, in this case you can't talk about the Bush family without talking about Prescott Bush and the Nazis... and the international corporate system, including IBM, that did business on both sides.
Nor can you neglect the way in which the US OSS/CIA rolled up Nazi intelligence networks, scooped up Nazi scientists, and deeply incorporated Nazis and Germans into various establishments.
Nor can you neglect the somewhat more nebulous ways in which both Nazi Germany and the U.S. perfected machinery of genocide (death camps and gas, and atomic bombs), and deployed those instruments of genocide during WWII.
Nor can you neglect the way the Bush administration has now committed the kind of war crimes (for example torture and launching wars of aggression) for which Nazis were hung at Nuremberg.
Add up the picture and we can see that the Nazi disease is deep inside our political and power structure... some of it imported... some of it homegrown.
Bush isn't even really the problem at all... he's just a factotum... a straw man. The question is one of how power is gained, how it is maintained, how totalitarian/"Nazi" power structures maintain themselves in the U.S. regardless of whether they have successfully placed a President in the oval office.
Kicking Bush out is only the most minor success. Gaining control over and defunding and reigning in the institutions that will place the next Bush in power if they are not prevented from doing so, should be the real goal of politics.
Even an Obama victory will mean nothing if the supporting structures of political power are not changed... defense contractors, unaccountable corporations, privatized intelligence organizations and armies, and all the apparatus of empire. Sure it's "Nazi" in nature.. but it is also emperial in nature, totalitarian in nature, authoritarian in nature and anti-democratic in nature. In fact what we are is perhaps more archetypal than what the Nazis were. They are just an early precursor of a much more powerful and resilient "evil empire."
You say we don't commit genocide? Friend, you only think that because our techniques are much more subtle and we put many more layers between the commanders and victims.
May 15, 2008 11:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Amen!
May 15, 2008 10:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
Adding to item #2) . . . and expanding Iran's power in the middle East through our invasion of Iraq.
May 15, 2008 10:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Shouldn't someone invoke Godwin's law?
May 15, 2008 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
If the Iranians are indeed the Nazis, which is worse:
1) Talking with them
2) Continuing to be the best customer for their #1 import while showing no leadership to reduce our addiction to their oil?
May 15, 2008 9:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
I am glad Bush has already started campaigning for McCain - in a foreign country no less (classy !).
It will make our job so much easier.
May 15, 2008 9:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know how well it would work in this example, maybe the Balkans, but Obama needs to start including Bill Clinton as an example of a presidency that worked.
Maybe he won't do this until Hillary formally drops out, but giving Bubba his due would go a long way to healing the wounds of this primary.
And I wholehearted agree that Bush firing shots at Obama is the best thing that can happen to his candidacy. Cheney helped lose the race in Mississippi, maybe by the end of this cycle there will be no Republican in the House and about 25 Republican Senators, those who don't face re-election.
May 15, 2008 9:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
I like this line of thinking. Let Bush run ALL their damned campaigns... (And I meant "damned" as a descriptor more than as a curse.)
May 15, 2008 10:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
Will McCain denounce this "negative campaigning"?
http://thinmansblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/disgusting.html
May 15, 2008 9:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bush suks......nuff'said
THE WORST PRESIDENT EVER
May 15, 2008 9:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh I can't wait for the general, it is going to be a bloodbath for the Republicans! All those doubters will be eating crow when they see how bad Obama beats up McCain and the Republicans. He is a prize fighter, he won't even break a sweat on these idiots.
Let's not let up until we drive the Republicans to the sea!
May 15, 2008 9:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Seriously. I think McCain is a fucking joke of a candidate and either Hillary or Obama would wipe the floor with him. Maybe I'm naive, but I don't get all the apprehension over McCain.
May 15, 2008 10:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't get it, either. I was thrilled when McCain looked to be the nominee. He comes in already weakened from being the beat up #2 guy behind Bush from 2000. He's 72. He can't hold on to the facts. He's flip flopped more times than Kerry can count. He has a pile of either illegal or at least unethical land deals with big donors. Really, Obama is going to trounce this man in November.
May 15, 2008 10:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, in a sane world, George W Bush was a fucking joke of a candidate, but he is now finishing out his second term.
The rational part of me agrees with your assessment on McCain's chances, but I am still very nervous because I don't think there are any limits to the nastiness and dishonesty the Republicans will employ to retain the presidency.
May 15, 2008 11:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
True. But this country is in a very different place than it was in 2004.
May 15, 2008 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
not to mention the assist the republicans and mccain can count on getting from the mainstream media...
May 15, 2008 12:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
look bush, the reductio ad hiterlum argument only works with vegetarianism. in every other case it's just logical fallacy.
May 15, 2008 9:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
I hope that the Quote of the general campaign is the Following:
"Senator McCain, your policies have been proven to not work. How long are the American people supposed to continue to believe that they will if you have just a couple more years? You had your time, You had your chance, and you failed. Now it's time to turn over leadership to people who are open to new ideas."
May 15, 2008 10:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good lord, is there no end to this man's stupidity? Or is it just hubris?
Please GW keep this up. Obama can't buy this kind of contrast with the Republican and Bush brand.
May 15, 2008 10:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
I like this site a lot better when it's Democrats attacking Republicans instead of Democrats attacking fellow Democrats.
May 15, 2008 10:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
Amen.
May 15, 2008 10:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
A-fucking-men!
May 15, 2008 10:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
A-fucking-damn-poopy-men!!!!
May 15, 2008 10:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Okay, okay. You win.
May 15, 2008 10:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, stick around. The tide's coming in.
May 15, 2008 10:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Amon Ra!
May 15, 2008 10:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Keep it up, Mr. 28% approval rating...
New slogan for Obama? "Bush disapproves of me".
May 15, 2008 10:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think Bush is secretly in the tank for Obama. How else can you explain his politically inept attack?
May 15, 2008 10:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think a pool should be started on whether bush will be visibly drunk on inauguration day
May 15, 2008 10:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
A message for Dubya: Just keep up your war-mongering talk... it reminds us all why the
GOP needs to be destroyed.... But, I do have feel some sympathy for Sen John McSame... how do they shut Dubya up?
May 15, 2008 10:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yay! Thanks, Bush. Let's bring the national discussion to foreign policy and why Obama will be a vast improvement over you and your sorry administration.
May 15, 2008 10:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bring it on, Bush, bring it on.
May 15, 2008 10:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is particularly funny considering Gates said we need to talk to Iran yesterday.
May 15, 2008 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
McCain Of The Panderosa.
More War Years! More War Years! More War Years!
A vote for The Maverick Of The Panderosa, is like a Vote for the Cowboy from Crawford that rounded him up and branded him.
More War Years! More War Years! More War Years!
May 15, 2008 10:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think it's moments like this that will make future historians look upon Bush as a greatly flawed and pathetic figure.
He is like a puppet that has lost his puppeteer, but magically can still move. The problem is that he only knows how to do what his puppeteer has taught him.
Sad in a Shakspearian way.
May 15, 2008 10:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe the Knesset will draw up legislation for the Final Solution to the Palestinian Problem while Bush is still there.
May 15, 2008 10:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
that would be funny if the paralles between germany and israel were not so close
May 15, 2008 10:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
I always thought that if you slipped liederhosen onto Sharon, he'd blend right in at a Munich Beer Hall.
May 15, 2008 11:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's bullshit. If you want to make an argument against injustice, go right ahead. But if you think what the Nazis did was just a matter of injustice you are in serious need of an education. You can start with the simple fact that in one case the population has grown rather quickly -albeit under difficult social conditions-whereas in the other it was roughly halved in just a few years by brutally efficient and wholesale murder.
May 15, 2008 1:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love when he creates the strawman and then beats the crap out of it, it is his most favorite and ridiculous rhetorical device...."Some say we should negotiate with terrorists, I say that's appeasement."
Let me give it a shot, "some say George Bush is tragic joke of a President, and I say, they are spot on!"
May 15, 2008 10:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oooh, I wanna play:
"Some say the Iraq War is a never-ending nightmare, a black hole that has swallowed up billions of American dollars and over 4000 soldier's lives, as well as destroy the infrastructure of Iraq, disassemble the social structure of the country and cause untold thousands of Iraqi deaths. To that I say, Mission Accomplished!!"
May 15, 2008 10:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Me too.
"Some say that America has to engage in torture, hold suspects indefinitely without the right to trial, drug detainees without their consent, spy on Americans without warrants, and violate the Constitution in order to 'win' the war on terror. To that, I say, 'You're the Benedict Arnolds of the 21st century because you've just given terrorists the victory they could never have won on their own -- destroying American democracy.'
May 15, 2008 11:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bush has already secured his legacy. The worst president in the history of the United States.
May 15, 2008 11:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
From Reuters:
"Former SEC head William Donaldson, who was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, joined Arthur Levitt and David Ruder in backing Obama, who leads rival Hillary Clinton in the number of delegates necessary to become the Democratic White House nominee.
Levitt was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, while Ruder was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan, a Republican."
Bush is pure gold (for the Dem's winning in 2008 and beyond)!
May 15, 2008 11:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
the diff between obama/wright versus mccain/bush and hillary/bill is thay obama doesn't agree with the reverend but the other two are in total accord with their partner
May 15, 2008 11:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
That and Wright is just a nutter, where as Bush is outright dangerous - just ask the families of the more than 4000 service men/women that died in Iraq. Not even comparable.
May 15, 2008 11:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
THE APOSTATE PRESIDENCY
Obama's father was a Muslim.
According to Shari'a law the son is always considered a Muslim.
Obama studied the Muslim religion (at least) between '67-'71.
Obama's announcement that he is a "Christian" renders him a murtaad (apostate) to all Muslims.
According to Shari'a law no Muslim is to be prevented from assasinating a murtaad nor are they to be prosecuted for doing so.
So the question is. How is Obama expected to arrange unity with a religion that regards him as fair game? Who will protect him when he visits a Muslim country?
Lastly: Is he engaged in "pious fraud"? Similar to that of the 911 hijackers? A practice condoned by Shari'a law in which a Muslim renounces his religion in order to carry out an act of martyrdom?
May 15, 2008 11:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
How many years has it been since you attended Divinity School?
ALL Christians are regarded as apostate to fundamentalist Muslims. Obama's designation is nothing special to them.
May 15, 2008 8:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know about Obama, but George W. Bush sure as fuck was engaged in "pious fraud".
May 15, 2008 8:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well RenSimplton, while I'm not necessarily against mind altering drugs in all cases, you've clearly scored a batch of something bad. Please sober up, and when you have at least a tenious grip on rationality and reality, feel free to rejoin the human race. Until then, stop your ridiculous babbling.
May 15, 2008 11:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
RenStimpy is a stenographer for a one Edward Luttwak, a vomiting sparrow of an Israeli plant that the NYT gave some op-ed space to about a week back.
May 15, 2008 11:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
bush could have talked of his grandfathers relationship in enabling the nazis, but that wouldn't have gone over as well... emptywheel is bang on with this, as she usually always is..
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/05/15/grandson-of-nazi-enabler-decries-talking-to-nazis/#comments
May 15, 2008 12:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
George W. Bush during the 2006 mid-term election" "If the Democrats win, the terrorists win". Ugly, isn't it?
He and his party were promptly slapped upside the head in no uncertain terms by the voters. Look for a repeat, only worse, in 2008. Nobody believes a thing this guy says. He's nothing more than an object of ridicule in the United States.
He's a joke. You know a politician is finished when the audience starts to snicker as soon as a comedian mentions his name. That's W.
May 15, 2008 12:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain just agreed wholeheartedly with these remarks. Apparently, he has no shame, either.
May 15, 2008 12:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Way to distance himself from Bush. This is actually a good thing for the dems I think.
Hopefully Bush will continue to make more asinine statements that McCain agrees with.
May 15, 2008 12:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
i wish obama would hit bush in the balls with his grandfathers connections to the nazis but that isn't obamas style... the media wouldn't know where to begin with it if he did...
May 15, 2008 12:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Also he's not running against Bush.
May 15, 2008 12:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama should simply respond by quoting JFK, "Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate."
May 15, 2008 12:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Kerry did that, well with a few other choice words.
May 15, 2008 12:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
So far to weigh in on this from the Dem side:
Obama
Obama spokesman Gibbs
Kerry
Dean
Pelosi
Emmanuel
From the Repub side:
Bush
McCain
Lieberman
May 15, 2008 12:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
True dat.
May 15, 2008 12:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I forgot Biden - athough how I could have done that since he called it 'Bullshit' is beyond me. Maybe the best, most apt response yet.
May 15, 2008 2:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Biden, too, he started with "THAT'S BULLS**T!"
As far as remember Bush's great grandfather was a nazi warmonger.
May 15, 2008 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Add Paul Begala to the Dem list. A definite sign the primary is over given his drunken brawl with Donna Brazile the other day.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-begala/bush-uses-holy-land-pulpi_b_101921.html
May 15, 2008 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
What's meven more hilarious is that the Senator who wanted to talk to the Nazis that Bush refers to was a REPUBLICAN.
Oh, the irony!
May 15, 2008 12:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
lemme guess
prescot bush ???
May 15, 2008 7:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
A bit off topic but was brought up in an earlier comment above. In the general election debates I would like someone to ask both of these candidates this question. If anybody in the Bush administration, including the former president and vice president, are brought up on war crimes charges will either candidate do anything to block them from standing trial?
May 15, 2008 1:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
People such as RenStimpy and Joe Lieberman are sincerely concerned that the true nature and extent of US aid to Israel will be revealed. Once that happens the true block on Middle East peace will be exposed for what it is. At the risk of being accused of being Anti-Semite I am tired of our government being a branch of the Knesset. We already have one senator that has pulled a Zel Miller so he could continue to represent Israel. They are shaking in their boots at the possibility of business in Washington not being done as usual.
May 15, 2008 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
And yet Washington's relationship with Israel will be the same substantively, I would say.
Obama is fully committed to Israel. He will strongly stand behind them as our closest non-NATO ally, helping to ensure their physical security through continuing joint military programs, continuing financial aid, and perhaps most importantly continuing to provide a shield from certain spurious UN resolutions against Israel (I am not saying they all are: many of the resolutions targeting Israel on human rights and international law bases are extremely valid, but some have been spurious).
It is completely impossible for anyone to get anywhere near a public office at the national level without a strong commitment to the nation. And that's a good thing.
But even better, what Obama does promise is to work to deflate (read: not obliterate) the threats to Israeli security instead of simply supplying more and more weaponry and conflict to the region, further endangering the Israeli nation. He will work to minimize the looming conflicts with Syria and Iran, realizing and acting in accordance with the fact that while run by terrible governments, these nations are full of human beings with grievances against the West that can be realistically allayed. He will not weaken the West's position, he will work to minimize the dissatisfaction of these states and thus their propensity to attack Israel and other Western nations.
All three of the candidates remaining will stand united behind Israel and continue to give it strong support - but only one has committed to trying to end the *source* of the insecurity the Israeli nation faces.
May 15, 2008 7:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
The interesting part of all of this (well one of the many) is that McCain is almost irrelevant in this conversation. Says something I think.
May 15, 2008 2:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
"If anybody in the Bush administration, including the former president and vice president, are brought up on war crimes charges will either candidate do anything to block them from standing trial?"
I would second that question,but I don`t think it will happen because the media has no balls to ask something that controversial.
May 15, 2008 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Biden had the best response.
I love this gangsta-style Democratic party. You mess with our man Obama, you mess with ALL of us bad ass mofos.
May 15, 2008 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
And to think the Dixie Chicks got into all the trouble for their rather benign comments (by comparison) about Bush said in London?!?! Too bad we don't have any Bush CDs we could burn...oh wait, they have done that already...they had all the White House emails on them from back in 2003. Silly me.
May 15, 2008 4:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Channeling idiotic:
SMARMY BUSH/LIEBERMAN INNUENDO
IS EXCELLENT NEWS!! FOR MCCAIN!!!
May 15, 2008 4:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
did somebody kidnap idiotic or something ???
isn't this great news for hillary ???
May 15, 2008 7:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've definitely missed her/him.
May 15, 2008 7:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Aw, it's pretty simple. If the man has a single active brain cell (I know how much doubt there is about that) he would do anything to prevent the Department of Neocon Justice to return to its more neutral position.
There are war crimes whose statute of limitations will not have run out when he returns to Crawford. There are real invasion-of-privacy broken laws that can still be prosecuted starting January 21, 09.
The man should have real concerns for his retirement not being from a prison cell, where he belongs.
Increase the size of Democratic control of Congress and put a Democrat in the Oval Office, and he and his brownshirt comrades should be shakin' and quakin'.
We can do more than hope. We can insist.
May 15, 2008 7:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Senator McCain supports staying in Iraq as does President Bush. Iraq recently hosted the Iranian leader in Baghdad. Does that mean that Bush and McCain support appeasement from those whom we are called upon to die for? Hypocrisy is one thing. But dying for it is indeed "outrageous."
May 15, 2008 9:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good word choice, W! We'd never recognize your implication!!
May 15, 2008 10:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
LA Times article, 5.27.2006
GOP Heavy Hitters Pressuring White House to Talk With Iran
by Laura Rozen
behind paywall here
fulltext here
excerpt:
"Amid concern that the US is drifting toward eventual confrontation with Iran, a growing number of influential statesmen, Republican senators and foreign policy experts are stepping up pressure on the Bush administration to consider doing what no US administration has done in 27 years: talk directly with Iran."
May 16, 2008 5:17 AM | Reply | Permalink