White House Lashes Out At Moderate House Republicans

May 11 (LPAC)--On the day that a bill calling for an end to all U.S. military involvement in Iraq obtained an unexpected 171 votes in the U.S. House of Representatives, the White House struck out at House Republicans who had revealed to the press, the occurrence of the May 8 meeting in which of 11 GOP Congressmen had bluntly warned President Bush of the destructive effect which the Iraq war is having on the Republican Party.

In what The Hill calls "the latest indications of an intensifying rift between Bush and Congressional Republicans," White House strategic Karl Rove confronted Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL), and White House liaison Dan Meyer confronted Rep. Roy LaHood (R-IL); LaHood and Meyer got into a shouting match Thursday morning at another White House event. "The White House is not happy," one Republican lawmaker to The Hill .

Also on Thursday, the House passed an Iraq war funding bill last night with only two months' financing, after which the Administration would have to come back in July with a report on the progress of the "surge" in Iraq. The vote was 221-205, with two Republicans voting in favor, and ten Democrats opposing. President Bush is threatening to veto the bill.

More surprising, was the fact that there were 171 votes for legislation to end all military involvement in Iraq in nine months; this included two GOP votes (Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, and Jimmy Duncan of Tennessee). The bill's chief sponsor, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), said that he didn't expect to get anywhere near that number of votes. "The United States Congress is getting closer to where the American people are," McGovern is quoted as saying by AP. "That was one helluva vote."