GOP Activists: Bush Won't Listen on Iraq
Here's another measure of how much trouble President Bush is in politically: Even once-loyal Republican activists are complaining that Bush's senior advisers, including political architect Karl Rove, don't want to listen to their ideas about changing policy in Iraq.
"They just get mad when we bring it up, so we leave it alone," says a prominent conservative who talks regularly to White House officials. The result is that even GOP insiders are losing faith in Bush's Iraq policies, including the "surge" of 21,500 troops now being debated in the House and vigorously defended by the president at his news conference this morning.
One concern is that the next phase of the war will be mismanaged just as past phases have been and that the administration won't recognize how bad things in Iraq have become or how much support Bush has lost at home. On domestic issues, the insiders say Bush's team is more willing to talk about ideas with outsiders. The complaint is that West Wing officials will listen but rarely accept outsiders' ideas.
The Bush team's main goal is to get everyone in GOP circles to repeat the White House talking points to the media, according to several GOP activists.