My God, it’s a bloodbath.
No, not Iraq. That’s horror, tragedy. I’m talking about the way the press is turning its hacking, slicing knives on the White House for the pitiful ‘stay the course’ debacle. The Times and the Post are holding a veritable northeast corridor schadenfreudethon.
Say Ruttenberg and Cloud: “The White House said Monday that President Bush was no longer using the phrase âstay the courseâ when speaking about the Iraq war, in a new effort to emphasize flexibility in the face of some of the bloodiest violence there since the 2003 invasion.”
Flexibility? I thought it was ‘stay the course’ versus ‘cut and run’. One or the other. Who heard of ‘flexibility’? That sounds so friggin’ John Kerry.
Now let’s spend a little more time with Peter Baker in the Post …
But the White House is cutting and running from “stay the course.” A phrase meant to connote steely resolve instead has become a symbol for being out of touch and rigid in the face of a war that seems to grow worse by the week, Republican strategists say. Democrats have now turned “stay the course” into an attack line in campaign commercials, and the Bush team is busy explaining that “stay the course” does not actually mean stay the course.
Instead, they have been emphasizing in recent weeks how adaptable the president’s Iraq policy actually is. Bush remains steadfast about remaining in Iraq, they say, but constantly shifts tactics and methods in response to an adjusting enemy. “What you have is not ‘stay the course’ but in fact a study in constant motion by the administration,” Snow said yesterday.
Political rhetoric, of course, is often in constant motion as well. But with midterm elections two weeks away, the Bush team is searching for a formula to address public opposition to the war, struggling to appear consistent and flexible at the same time. That was underscored by the reaction to a New York Times report that the administration is drafting a timetable for the Iraqi government to disarm militias and assume a larger security role. The White House initially called the story “inaccurate.” But then White House counselor Dan Bartlett went on CNN yesterday morning to call it “a little bit overwritten” because in fact it was something the administration had been doing for months.
Struggling indeed. ‘Cut and Run’ lacks nuance. And after, what, 18 months of hearing how timetables will embolden the terrorists, it turns out we’re giving the Iraqis timetables.
I really hope the Democrats have maybe 20 kids working the Nexis-Lexis accounts tonight digging up quotes from every hapless member of Congress the White House got to walk the plank with this nonsense last summer (if you find a good one, send it in. And for the best two or three entrants we’ll send out prized TPM mugs!)
There’s a lesson here amid the cackling though, one which may be grimly echoed in our own departure if the country doesn’t force the president’s hand and prevent his ego from being the guiding force in our policy. Strategic retreats are often the choice of wise leaders, shrewd generals. Having the clarity of vision to see the difference between the possible and the desirable can often allow you to change course early and avoid a debacle later. Here you see the White House which has banged away at ‘stay the course’ and ‘don’t question the policy’ for like two years now and suddenly at the crunch point they’re bailing out. Or trying to bail out — but now they really can’t. The White House political czars look like nothing so much as those panicked embassy workers and refugees on the compound rooftop clamoring to get one of the last seats on those final helicopters out of Saigon. Same amount of planning, about as much dignity.
Like I wrote earlier today, the president has run this war like a confidence game. And as you would expect, that’s led to a bubble. The support is tough but brittle. Any move off the absolutes, with us or against us, stay the course vs. cut and run, and the whole thing starts to crack. Once the White House comes out for pragmatism and flexibility, that leaves them perilously close to embracing reality itself. And that, of course, is like the kryptonite of Bush’s superherodom. After that, the deluge.
