Today's NY Times has an article about the political impact of Iraq on Republican Senate candidates. Focusing on New Hampshire's John Sununu, the piece also mentions Oregon's Gordon Smith and Minnesota's Norm Coleman. For some reason, Maine's Susan Collins missed the scrutiny of the Times although she faces the same problem:
On Monday, the Senate resumes its protracted struggle to forge an Iraq strategy. Mr. Sununu and a handful of Republicans — including those facing re-election next year and those who have expressed unhappiness with President Bush’s conduct of the war but are uncomfortable with the idea of setting a date for withdrawal — find themselves searching for balance as they juggle three tasks: responding to the frustrations of their constituents, resisting the demands of antiwar Democrats and not entirely abandoning the White House.What Sununu means is he's trying to get the politics right. For the Republicans and their President who are responsible for the Iraq war, it's always been a political issue first. They've never had a real policy, but they've had a lot of campaign slogans. And, no matter how poorly Bush has managed the war, the GOP has made loyalty to their President the top priority.
“The issue is difficult for everybody,” Mr. Sununu said in an interview. “My goal is to do what I can to help get the policy right.”
Meanwhile, in Iraq, far from the political handwringing among the GOPers in D.C., the soldiers that George Bush sent to Iraq continue to die:
Five U.S. soldiers were killed on Sunday by roadside bomb attacks in Iraq, the U.S. military said in a statement.
Four soldiers were killed north of Baghdad in Diyala, a restive province where U.S. commanders recently asked for more troops to fight al Qaeda and other militants.
Two more soldiers were wounded in the attack.
A fifth soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in northwest Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
The deaths bring to at least 75 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq this month.
