Beginning of the end game

Round Two. House passes Iraq funds bill Bush would veto.

This WaPo story reminds me of something I heard last month during a discussion about the war.

House Republican moderates, in a remarkably blunt White House meeting, warned President Bush this week that his pursuit of the war in Iraq is risking the future of the Republican Party and that he cannot count on GOP support for many more months.

A few of weeks ago I covered a discussion between Rep. David Price and several precinct chairs and active Democrats opposed to the war.
Price says showdown looming over war funding (Carrboro Citizen, April 18, 2007

At one point — one of those ‘look, this is the deal’ moments you have during such roundtables — Price said the end will come when GOP representatives pay a visit down the street.

“I don’t know what the tipping point is,” he said. “[The war] probably will end when a bunch of Republicans march down Pennsylvania Avenue and tell him he’s going to end it.”

And the congressman added: “We’d like to hasten that day.”

Perhaps that’s what we’re starting to see. There’s an interesting few comments about polling data shared in the meeting with Bush.

Davis, a former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, also presented Bush dismal polling figures to dramatize just how perilous the party’s position is, participants said. Davis would not disclose details, saying the exchange was private. Others warned Bush that his personal credibility on the war is all but gone.