WASHINGTON NEWS

Bush's Vietnam Analogy Touches A Nerve

President Bush's speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Kansas City, Missouri used a variety of arguments to defend his Iraq policies. However, it was his mention of Vietnam that touched off a storm of commentary last night and this morning much of it hostile. Reports on it ran on all three network, hundreds of local TV newscasts and the front pages of this morning's major newspapers. Out of the three networks, only the CBS Evening News focused primarily on another aspect of the speech the President's defense of the Iraqi Prime Minister only 24 hours after criticizing him. The New York Times and the AP also led their reports with Bush's comments on the Iraqi leader, with the AP saying those comments "stole the spotlight from Bush's attempt to buttress support for the war by likening today's fight against extremism to past conflicts in Japan, Korea and Vietnam."

That AP assessment notwithstanding, the media spotlight remained solidly on Bush's Vietnam analogy. As the Kansas City Star reports this morning, Bush cited the "US conflict with Japan and the Korean War as examples of what can be achieved." Bush said the "nation's steadfast commitment in seeing those conflicts through to the end is paying great dividends now." The second part of Bush's argument, the Washington Post says, was that "withdrawing US troops" from Iraq "would lead to widespread death and suffering" as it did in the case of Vietnam after the US pulled out. The Wall Street Journal reports "aides" said the speech's focus "on the lessons of recent Asian history was Mr. Bush's idea, and couldn't have been done without delving into Vietnam."

Despite the thirty years elapsed since the end of the Vietnam conflict, reaction to Bush's reference to that conflict was fast and furious augmented by the fact that some leading Vietnam War critics are now leading the charge against Bush's Iraq "surge." The Washington Times notes Bush's speech drew a stern rebuke from Sen. Ted Kennedy, who said, "Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam. ... It is a quagmire. -- The president misled the American people about the need for war, and he misleads them now, clinging to the false hope that his failed policy has a chance of succeeding with a few more months." Fox Special Report noted Sen. John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam vet who later protested the war, called Bush's comments "irresponsible" and "ignorant." The Hill reports Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid "said that Bush, 'instead of providing the country with a history lesson...should be reevaluating his flawed strategies.'"

Academians and political commentators also jumped into the fray. The New York Times reports Bush "is challenging the historical memory that the pullout from Vietnam had few negative repercussions for the United States and its allies." A second New York Times story says many historians "quarreled with his drawing analogies from the causes of that turmoil to predict what might happen in Iraq should the United States withdraw." Likewise, NBC Nightly News reported, "Some historians claim" Bush's "use today of Vietnam was too simple and not accurate." The CBS Evening News said, "Historian Douglas Brinkley says there's no real parallel" between Iraq and Vietnam. Brinkley was shown saying, "You're not going to be able to sell the lessons of Vietnam being we should have stayed a decade longer."

CNN political analyst and former Clinton strategist Paul Begala said on CNN's The Situation Room, "He's saying, essentially, that 58,000 dead in Vietnam weren't quite enough, that maybe we should have twice as big a tragic memorial on the Mall. And who's saying it? A man who chose not to serve." Joseph Galloway, in an analysis piece for McClatchy, writes, "Year-by-year, month-by-month, now even day-to-day, we're treated to a different rationale for the Iraq war from a different...Bush." The Los Angeles Times, in an editorial, says Bush's speech contained "rhetoric that would stir any patriot but logic that should persuade few. ... The real lesson of Vietnam is that its civil war was a nationalist struggle that toppled no communist 'dominoes' across Asia. Bush's rhetoric implying an Al Qaeda 'domino effect' in the Middle East has the same false ring."

USA Today says "historical comparisons dominated Bush's speech," while AFP and The Hill, among other news outlets, also focused their reports on the Vietnam angle. NBC Nightly News showed Bush saying, "Here at home, some can argue our withdrawal from Vietnam carried no price for American credibility. But the terrorists see it differently." And ABC World News showed the President saying that in Vietnam, "The price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms, like boat people, re-education camps and killing fields."

Likewise, Bush's comments drew extensive coverage on local TV, with more than 400 local newscasts across the nation noting the Vietnam analogy. For example, WCAU-TV of Philadelphia said Bush "didn't talk about Vietnam being an American loss that continues to haunt the American psyche. He talked about worrying" a withdrawal "could be perceived outside by the enemies of the United States as a sign of weakness." KBWB-TV in San Francisco, which led with the story, reported Bush "said when troops pulled out" of Vietnam, "it led to thousands of deaths, and leaving Iraq, the President said, would be just as terrible." WCVB-TV in Boston reported Bush "argued that terrorists...think Vietnam is proof that Americans don't have the stomach for a long, drawn-out battle." WSVN-TV Miami (8/22, 12:19 p.m.) said Bush "made quite a stir mentioning Vietnam." And WGN-TV in Chicago reported Bush said the "price of American withdrawal from Vietnam was the deaths of millions of innocent civilians" and "he does not want that to happen again."

Some Praise For Bush There were some positive appraisals of Bush's remarks. The Washington Times says in an editorial, "With positive military news continuing from Iraq, President Bush yesterday seized the moment. ... For opponents of the war, it will be difficult to agree."

Kate O'Beirne of the National Review said on MSNBC's Tucker, "The lessons of Vietnam are clearly in the eye of the beholder. What George Bush was saying is, some are now arguing that the situation in Iraq would improve if we would leave. I remind them, some made the same argument about the US leaving Vietnam."

Michael Goodwin of the New York Daily News said on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, "I thought it actually was quite a powerful speech. And I thought a lot of the historical references to World War II and Korea were very compelling. ... It does get dicier with Vietnam."

Congressional Quarterly's Craig Crawford saw Bush's remarks as an attempt to reach out to conservatives. Crawford said on MSNBC's Countdown, "There is a lot of revisionism amongst conservatives about Vietnam that we could have won it if we had stayed. This is a popular theory and among conservatives and he is touching on that."

GOP Plan Sees Political Edge On Iraq

With some Democrats moving more quickly to soften their earlier criticism of the Iraq troop surge, Republicans are set to demand that the erstwhile critics admit they were wrong about the strategy. A congressional GOP leadership official told the Political Bulletin, "We are going to make sure that Democrats own their previous statements and positions on the surge." The Senate Republican Conference, for example, planned to release a document which highlights the recent Democratic quotes from lawmakers like Sen. Hillary Clinton versus what the Democrats said just two months ago with leaders like Sen. Harry Reid calling it a failure. "We're not going to allow them to approach the Petraeus report without first having to admit that they were wrong about the surge and that General [David] Petraeus was right, and continues to be right in his assessments," says the leadership official. The goal, say Republicans, is to put the Democrats on the defensive and question their judgment about the war.

"The Democrats forgot or ignored the fact that Americans would rather win than leave Iraq at any cost, and their misjudgment is now coming back to bite them," a Senate GOP aide told the Political Bulletin. "They prejudged the surge based on their emotional distaste and almost hysterical opposition to the war in Iraq -- that was an error as the facts on the ground now show they miscalculated," says the aide. "September was supposed to be the culmination of their never-ending debate on Iraq in Congress but it's increasingly likely they've boxed themselves into a corner. They're stuck trying to pull defeat from the jaws of victory and all while they've got the lowest approval rating in history," he added.

Pro-Surge Ad Campaign Gets Underway The AP reports former White House aides "are joining Republican fundraisers in bankrolling a $15 million, five-week advertising campaign putting pressure on lawmakers whose backing of President Bush's Iraq war strategy may be wavering." The group, Freedom's Watch, "launched the ads Wednesday, even as Bush delivered a renewed call for keeping U.S. forces in Iraq. The money will pay for ad placements on national cable and local television stations as well as on radio and the Internet." The ads will feature "soldiers wounded in the war or family members of soldiers killed in the war calling on lawmakers to support the current deployment of troops." The Hill notes the ads target "several Republicans who are deemed vulnerable in 2008, including Reps. Heather Wilson (N.M.), Jon Porter (Nev.) and Jim Gerlach (Pa.). ... The ad campaign will also run in the district of Rep. Ric Keller (R-Fla.), who received an avalanche of criticism after his vote against President Bush's plan to add thousands of additional combat troops to Iraq." The Politico, however, reports, "Anti-war groups ridiculed a $15 million, Republican-led ad campaign aimed at rallying support for the war in Iraq Wednesday as a 'desperate move' -- and vowed to counter the move with a PR surge of their own."

GOP War Opponent Faces Primary Challenge Much of the media coverage of the war's political impact has focused on Republicans endangered by their support of Bush's policies. This morning, The Politico reports on the case of a Republican who broke with the White House, GOP Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr. of North Carolina. "Until two years ago," says The Politico, Jones "was probably best known nationally for championing 'freedom fries' to replace 'french fries' in the House cafeteria -- a hit with the GOP's right-wing base." But "after co-sponsoring a measure with Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) in June 2005 calling for a time-certain troop withdrawal from Iraq, Jones began taking heat from many of those same supporters." For the "first time in more than a decade, Jones faces a serious primary challenger in Onslow County Commissioner Joe McLaughlin, a former Army Ranger, and their race will test how opposition to the Iraq war plays out in conservative and pro-military America."

Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.

Bush Officials Take Trips From Regulated Firms

USA Today reports that at time when Congress "has moved to ban most lobbyist-funded travel, executive branch officials are routinely accepting trips from companies and trade associations with a stake in their agencies' decisions, according to a USA TODAY review of public records." More than 100 trips "taken from April 2006 to March 2007 would be out of bounds for members of Congress under the recently passed ethics bill, because they lasted more than one day and were paid for by companies or groups that employ lobbyists." USA Today also reports that Federal law "permits corporations and interest groups to give free trips to executive-branch agencies as long as there is no conflict of interest. But the definition of a conflict, laid out in regulations, is vague: Some agencies accept only trips from non-profit foundations and universities. Others sign off on travel funded by vendors and trade groups."

Government Employs Illegals

The Washington Times reports Republican Rep. Steve King says that if President Bush "is serious about getting tough on U.S. employers who hire illegal aliens, he can start with his own administration, which employs thousands of unauthorized workers." A 2006 audit showed federal, state, and local governments "are among the biggest employers of the half-million persons in the U.S. illegally using 'non-work' Social Security numbers -- numbers issued legally, but with specific instructions that the holders are not authorized to work in the U.S."

Greenhouse Cuts To Cost $200 Billion

The Financial Times reports, "Rapidly rising greenhouse gas emissions around the world mean it will cost more than $200bn a year to return to today's level of emissions by 2030." The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat "on Wednesday laid out in detail how much it would cost to return emissions to today's levels by 2030, which may not be enough to avoid some of the adverse consequences of climate change."

Were The '30s The Hottest Decade? The Christian Science Monitor reports a "corrective tweak to National Aeronautics and Space Administration's formulation shows that the hottest year on record in the US indeed was back during the Dust Bowl days" in 1934. But "does this mean that all the concern about global warming being a relatively recent phenomenon tied to carbon-belching power plants and hulking SUVs is a bunch of Al Gore hooey?" Climate change skeptics "and their cheering section among conservative bloggers and radio shoutmeisters think so even though most scientists say, no, the tweak is not a big deal and overall trends are in the direction of toastier days around the globe."

Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.

Top

CAMPAIGN NEWS

Edwards Campaign Hits Clinton Over Iraq

CNN reports on its website that "the war of words" between the Edwards and Clinton campaigns "intensified" when Edwards communication director Chris Kofinis criticized Hillary Clinton for her favorable review of the military progress made by the surge at the VFW convention, asking, "Does Senator Clinton support George Bush's surge or not? Does Senator Clinton have a specific timetable for withdrawing troops or not? Does Senator Clinton have a specific plan for ending the war in Iraq or not? The American people deserve specific answers, not more rhetoric, and surely not more personal Washington-style attacks." CNN adds that Howard Wolfson, Clinton's communication director, "charged" that the Edwards campaign "was distorting Clinton's position. 'Senator Edwards was right on Sunday when he said that all the Democrats would end the war and that the differences between them were small,' he said. 'He is wrong today to distort Senator Clinton's opposition to the surge in a sad attempt to raise his flagging poll numbers.'"

However, Edwards' criticism did seem to force a semi-retraction from the Clinton campaign. In a story headlined "Hillary: Um, Iraq surge's NOT working," the New York Daily News reports, "President Bush's Iraq surge is not working, Hillary Clinton insisted yesterday as she tried to quiet claims she was flip-flopping on her opposition to the White House war strategy. Clinton drew attention after telling a VFW convention Monday that new tactics in the Al Anbar region were 'working.'" The News adds that Camp Clinton "insisted she was talking only about a limited improvement in Anbar, linked to better relations with tribal leaders -- a claim she made to the Daily News in March. Yesterday, she tried to end the surge-support talk. 'The surge was designed to give the Iraqi government time to take steps to ensure a political solution,' she said. 'It has failed.'"

Romney Tangles Up Abortion Position

The Washington Post reports in a front page story Mitt Romney "said this week that as president he would allow individual states to keep abortion legal, two weeks after telling a national television audience that he supports a constitutional amendment to ban the procedure nationwide." In an interview "with a Nevada television station on Tuesday, Romney said Roe. v. Wade should be abolished and vowed to 'let states make their own decision in this regard.' On Aug. 6, he told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that he supports a human life amendment to the Constitution that would protect the unborn." The two "very different statements reflect the challenge for Romney, who has reinvented himself as a champion of the antiabortion movement in recent years and is seeking to become the conservative alternative to former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination."

Clinton, Giuliani Opening Wide Leads In New Hampshire.

A new Quinnipiac University poll of likely Pennsylvania voters released this morning shows Hillary Clinton dominating the Democratic field, while Rudy Giuliani holds a wide lead on the GOP side. In the poll, taken August 14-20, Clinton leads the Democrats with 42%, followed by Al Gore, 13%; Barack Obama, 12%; and John Edwards, 8%. The rest of the candidates are at 4% or less. In a similar survey taken two weeks earlier, Clinton led Obama 35%-19%.

On the GOP side, Giuliani leads with 31%, followed by John McCain, 13%; Newt Gingrich, 9%; Fred Thompson, 8%; and Mitt Romney, 7%. The rest of the field is at 2% or less. In the early August survey, Giuliani led McCain 29% to 16%, with Fred Thompson at 14%.

In general election trial heats, Clinton beats Giuliani, 46%-44%, and McCain, 47%-41%. Giuliani leads Edwards, 45%-43%, and Obama, 45%-40%.

Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.

Top

POLITICAL HUMOR

The Latest From Late Night Comedians

David Letterman: Top Ten Top Signs Osama Bin Laden is Alive and Well:

"10. FBI has indicted him for funding an illegal goatfighting operation.

9. On recent Al Qaeda audiotape, he says some kind words about Merv Griffin.

8. The new US Weekly has photos of him in a hot tub with Britney.

7. The congratulatory phone call to Barry Bonds.

6. He's booked with Regis and Susan Lucci at Foxwoods Resort & Casino.

5. His MySpace page was updated this morning.

4. Starring in a new series about a bunch of misfits who try to rob Ayman Al-Zawahiri.

3. Al Jazeera reports he's endorsing Mitt Romney for President.

2. Afghanistan moviegoers report a 7-foot bearded guy laughing his nuts off at 'Superbad'.

1. Seen house hunting in L.A. with wife Posh Bin Laden."

David Letterman: "You know you've been following that story of Michael Vick. He pled guilty to dog fighting charges and he may do jail time. This is unbelievable. And they say that this guy went through more dogs than Bill Clinton."

Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.

Top