This wasn't what Karl Rove's permanent majority was supposed to look like. Even as Vice President Cheney was being dispatched to Baghdad to prod the Iraqi government and shore up public support for the war, President Bush was being bluntly told by Republican moderates that Iraq is a looming political disaster for the GOP. Meanwhile, in the 2008 presidential race, the abortion issue is splintering the party, leaving two of the top three Republican candidates scrambling to explain themselves.
It may be healthy for the GOP to work through its internal divisions now, 18 months before Election Day. But it sure isn't pretty. Tuesday's White House meeting -- charitably described by participants as "candid," "frank," and "open" -- speaks to the party's most immediate challenge: holding fast behind an unpopular war. But the president's vow to veto another Democratic war-funding bill was lost in this news cycle, subsumed by a meeting with 11 House members that represented "perhaps the clearest sign yet that patience in the party is running out," The Washington Post's Shailagh Murray and Jonathan Weisman write. Said Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.): "People are always saying President Bush is in a bubble. Well, this was our chance, and we took it."