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Bush Throws Mitch under the Bus

Chappy

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Say, what! Bush threw fellow Republican, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) under the bus?!??

Excerpted from “Bush memoir says Mitch McConnell wanted troop cut to aid GOP candidates in 2006” BY JAMES R. CARROLL, Louisville Courier-Journal, NOVEMBER 9, 2010
[SIZE="+2"]I[/SIZE]n September 2006, with the midterm elections looming, then-Senate Republican Whip Mitch McConnell went privately to President George W. Bush to plead for a troop reduction in Iraq to help the GOP's political prospects.

That is according to Bush, who tells the story in his memoir, Decision Points, which was released Tuesday.

Mitch McConnell, in a meeting alone with Bush, urged the president to “bring some troops home from Iraq” or it would cost Republicans control of Congress. …

Yup. Mitch McConnell's national security policy is based on what's good for the Republican party.


McConnell was privately counseling the president to reduce troop levels in Iraq even as he was attacking the patriotism of his political opponents who publicly said the same.

Excerpted from “McConnell's true colors,” Editorial, Louisville Courier-Journal, NOVEMBER 11, 2010
[SIZE="+2"]T[/SIZE]his incident, which Sen. McConnell's office has not denied, shines brightly on the contemptible hypocrisy and obsessive partisanship that have come to mark the senator's time in office.

… [T]he public has a right to expect its leaders to pursue loftier goals than partisan success. When voters hear Sen. McConnell these days — at a time of continuing economic hardship — say that Republicans' top priority must be to limit President Obama to a single term, they should ask themselves: Why does he place greater value on that purely political goal than on American citizens' well-being?
 
I still don't understand why W. would include this little detail in his book about McConnell's private meeting with him. Was it pay back for some slight the Kentucky senator committed? Was the former president unaware how humiliating this would be for Mitch? I don't know.
 
Speaking of our soldiers, let's show what "throwing them under the bus" really looks like !

YouTube - Harry Reid: Iraq War Is Lost

Glad to see some are still willing to point out the splinter in other's eye while ignoring the beam in their own.

Don't try to change the topic dude, what Harry Reid has to say has nothing to do with this current story.
 
I still don't understand why W. would include this little detail in his book about McConnell's private meeting with him. Was it pay back for some slight the Kentucky senator committed? Was the former president unaware how humiliating this would be for Mitch? I don't know.

If you look just at Bush's context, he is showing how politics wants to work its way into many decisions. As my link showed, sometimes in egregious ways. While you quoted a Dem Rep from KY criticizing McConnell, I do not see anything wrong with McConnell's actions. I believe McConnell was correct ... bring some home or you lose here. I see no evidence that McConnell tried to criticise the President publicly, tried to use political leverage to force the President's hand, etc. Heck, Bush was writing a book about what his term was like, so it makes perfect sense being in the book ! Whether Iraq was right-wrong in every aspect is certainly not a decided issue. There are still plenty of Conservatives who think it not the best move, or once initiated, not managed as well as it could have been in a few obvious ways.

Making Obama a "one term President" is putting the country first in the eyes of many of us, btw. I thought the Dems wanted Bush as a one-termer as well :)
 
Glad to see some are still willing to point out the splinter in other's eye while ignoring the beam in their own.

Don't try to change the topic dude, what Harry Reid has to say has nothing to do with this current story.

And hopefully my above post explained it to you "dude". OBTW, the OP included a criticism from a Dem Rep in KY, which was worth about as much as a teat on a boar, but does illustrate that we are talking politics, are we not ?

Is every Republican supposed to march in lock-step with a Republican President ? On every aspect of every issue ? McConnell will be just fine ...... despite your objections ... LOL
 
If you look just at Bush's context, he is showing how politics wants to work its way into many decisions. As my link showed, sometimes in egregious ways. While you quoted a Dem Rep from KY criticizing McConnell, I do not see anything wrong with McConnell's actions. I believe McConnell was correct ... bring some home or you lose here. I see no evidence that McConnell tried to criticise the President publicly, tried to use political leverage to force the President's hand, etc. Heck, Bush was writing a book about what his term was like, so it makes perfect sense being in the book ! Whether Iraq was right-wrong in every aspect is certainly not a decided issue. There are still plenty of Conservatives who think it not the best move, or once initiated, not managed as well as it could have been in a few obvious ways.

Making Obama a "one term President" is putting the country first in the eyes of many of us, btw. I thought the Dems wanted Bush as a one-termer as well :)

i sense A SOKPUPPET. what does everyone else think?
 
i sense A SOKPUPPET. what does everyone else think?

LOL ... there are a few here who know that I am no sock-puppet !! But why don't you have the mod's check just in case :)

Then try to debate.
 
I suppose the truth, for you, hurts.

Which truth would that be ? Nov 2nd, 2010 ? Obama looking more like a one-termer with each passing day ? Heck, I'm rooting for Hillary or Bayh to get the nomination, so that no matter what the outcome in Nov 2012, it'll be better than Obama.

Is there a problem that this thread is falling flat on its face already ? Is this the issue that destroys Mitch McConnell ? LOL .... got no traction except swiping at me ? Hahahahahaha ............ keep trying :)
 
Answer the question: Why did George Bush have it in for Mitch McConnell?
 
I still don't understand why W. would include this little detail in his book about McConnell's private meeting with him. Was it pay back for some slight the Kentucky senator committed? Was the former president unaware how humiliating this would be for Mitch? I don't know.

Why must he have "had it out" for him?

If there is one thing Bush has shown through his Presidency and after is that he maintains to his convictions, his belief of what is right, and truly and firmly believes that the War on Terror was correct and necessary and that such was more important than politics.

He's now doing a memoir, in part to show people what went on during his time and insight into those convictions and principles, and is likely to be honest and frank about much of it. For example, look at Amnesty International jumping all over the waterboarding stuff. Is Bush "out for" himself? No, its just the frank steadfast personality is who he is.

Putting this into the book just further drives home how much conviction he had that this was the right thing, how much he did care about the well being of the troops and the country, and put those things above all others including perhaps party unity or success. He was willingly to do what was right for our troops and our country in his mind even if it meant harming his parties majority in congress. It was likely included not as a shot at Mitch McConnel but simply to further highlight the true character and purpose of the President.
 
Answer the question: Why did George Bush have it in for Mitch McConnell?

It's called honesty. It's called writing a thoughtful book with integrity, rather than copying another person's book as Obama did and stealing the phrase "The audacity of hope" from someone else.

You wouldn't understand. You support a president who has written to "memoirs" before he ever did anything in his life worth talking about.
 
It makes sense that by sharing the request to lower troop levels in Iraq made privately by Mitch McConnell in 2006 Bush demonstrated that his decision making regarding the war was "above politics." One wonders if he could have done that without throwing an apparent political ally under the proverbial bus.
 
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