11 Republicans Take Bush to the Woodshed updated
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| VIDEO: Mr. Bush and 11 Republicans Russert is positively beside himself reporting this event. He's obviously in shock that Republicans finally stood up to Bush. |
This broke on MSNBC earlier.
Think Progress
has the NBC nightly news video and transcript of Russert. Here's a snippet.
RUSSERT: Brian, all eyes on the Republican Party. How long will they support
the president’s position on the Iraq war? Yesterday may have been a
defining pivotal moment. At 2:30 in the afternoon in the private quarters
of the White House, the Salarium room, 11 Republican congressmen had a private
meeting with the President, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State,
the chief political adviser Karl Rove and the White House Press Secretary
Tony Snow and others. It was headed by Mark Kirk of Illinois and Charlie Dent
of Pennsylvania. It was, in the words of one of the parties, the “most
unvarnished conversation they’ve ever had with the president.”
Another member said he has met with three presidents and never have been so
can candid. They told the president, and one said, “My district is prepared
for defeat. We need candor, we need honesty, Mr. President.” The president
responded, “I don’t want to pass this off to another president.
I don’t want to pass this off, particularly, to a Democratic president,”
underscoring he understood how serious the situation was. Brian, the Republican
congressman then went on to say, “The word about the war and its progress
cannot come from the White House or even you, Mr. President. There is no longer
any credibility. It has to come from Gen. Petraeus.” The meeting lasted
an hour and 15 minutes and was, in the words of one, “remarkable for
the bluntness and no-holds-barred honesty in the message delivered by all
these Republican congressmen.”
In the bad old days of Watergate, the tipping point was when Republicans made
the walk to the White House to tell Nixon it was over.
We can only hope this long overdue walk to tell Mr. Bush the truth will impress on him just how serious a situation he's in; not to mention
what our troops are facing in Iraq. We've reached a tipping point.
Needless to say, the Iraqis saying they were taking a two-month vacation was the push.
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