Rudy Giuliani has suggested that President Bush should negotiate with Congress before vetoing a money bill for Iraq with a troop deadline for withdrawal.
While this comes as a mild surprise from a Republican candidate for president, Mayor Rudy added that a pullout amounts to a surrender.
On talking to Congress, Giuliani must be dreaming. Bush shows no sign of budging an inch.
The president stuck a finger in Congress's eye again last week. He gave a recess appointment to Sam Fox as ambassador to Belgium. Fox is a big GOP contributor who gave $50,000 to help pay for the TV ads in 2004 that smeared Sen. John Kerry's distinguished war record in Vietnam. The White House had withdrawn the nomination earlier when the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said no thanks.
Some Democratic members of Congress are not entirely faultless in attempts to reach agreement with Bush. Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to the Middle East was ill-advised and ill-timed–at least for now.
However, the prime responsibility rests with Bush. He speaks with one voice, compared with 535 members of Congress.
As for Giuliani, he is trying to have it both ways on Iraq. Mitt Romney, John McCain, and Giuliani all go along with Bush's war policy. Unless they change their tune, the GOP is headed for disaster in November 2008, from the top of the ticket to county sheriff.
John W. Mashek covered politics in Washington for four decades with U.S. News & World Report, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Boston Globe. His primary beats were Congress, the White House, and national politics. He covered every presidential election from 1960 to 1996. He was a panelist in three televised presidential debates in 1984, 1988, and 1992.
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