From The Los Angeles Times, 5/10/07:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-vacation10may10,1,3424384,full.story?coll=la-news-a_section&ctrack=1&cset=true
THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ: CONTROVERSY OVER LEGISLATORS' VACATION
Iraqi lawmakers' vacation plans rile Republicans
Bush's congressional allies say a two-month summertime break would
erode GOP support for the war.
By Peter Spiegel and Tina Susman, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON —
The holiday plans of foreign lawmakers are not normally a topic of
intense political interest in Washington.
But in a town where the president is known for extended stays at his
Texas ranch and Congress shuns longer workweeks, the vacation schedule
of lawmakers in Baghdad has suddenly and incongruously moved to the
top of the agenda.
At issue is whether the Iraqi parliament will take its regular summer
break, a two-month vacation scheduled to begin July 1.
If it does, Republican lawmakers have warned that the Iraqis' recess
could cost President Bush support from within his own party at a
crucial moment in the war.
The U.S.-backed government in Baghdad "would lose a lot of support
here," said Sen. Tom Coburn, a conservative Republican from Oklahoma
who has opposed Democratic attempts to set a deadline for U.S. troop
cutbacks in Iraq.
"We're fighting hard. You need to be fighting hard."
Top administration officials have noted the concern.
Vice President ***** Cheney raised the issue in meetings with Iraqi
officials in Baghdad on Wednesday, and Defense Secretary Robert M.
Gates discussed it during his most recent trip to Iraq.
"I'll be blunt: I told some of the Iraqis with whom I met that we are
buying them [time] for political reconciliation, and that every day we
buy it with American blood," Gates said at a Senate hearing Wednesday.
"For this group to go out for two months, it would, in my opinion, be
unacceptable."
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D'ya suppose that this is the excuse the Repugs are lookin' for to get
out and save face? It might even be a setup.
Harry
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