President George W. Bush's "Decision Points" Says Mitch McConnell Asked For Some Iraqi Troop Withdrawals To Help Republican Election Efforts.

Bush memoir says McConnell wanted troop cut to aid GOP candidates in 2006
By James R. Carroll

WASHINGTON —– In September 2006, with the midterm elections looming, then-Senate Republican Whip Mitch McConnell went privately to President George W. Bush to plead for a troop reduction in Iraq to help the GOP's political prospects.

That is according to Bush, who tells the story in his memoir, Decision Points, which was released Tuesday.

McConnell, in a meeting alone with Bush, urged the president to “bring some troops home from Iraq” or it would cost Republicans control of Congress.

But Bush said he told McConnell, Kentucky’s senior senator, that he would “set troop levels to achieve victory in Iraq, not victory at the polls.”

McConnell spokesman Robert Steurer said Wednesday that the senator “does not comment on any advice he may have given the president on improving his political standing.”

“But the public record is clear on his unwavering support for ensuring that our troops in the field were fully funded, and that Gen. (David) Petraeus (then the commander of coalition forces in Iraq) was able to execute a counter-insurgency strategy on the ground in Iraq free of arbitrary deadlines for withdrawal, even when it was politically unpopular to do so,” Steurer said.

But U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd District, was highly critical of McConnell's request, and analysts said they were stunned by Bush's revelation.

“If the story is true, Sen. McConnell will have to explain to the families of all the men and women who sacrificed in Iraq why he was willing to play politics with their lives,” Yarmuth, who was elected in 2006, said in an interview.

What Bush is saying puts McConnell in a bad light, said Michael Desch, chairman of the University of Notre Dame's political science department and formerly director of the University of Kentucky's Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce.

“Because he had been a cheerleader for the president in the war, it makes him look like a bit of a hypocrite,” Desch said of McConnell. “It also makes him look bad because he seems to be trimming his sails in response to electoral politics, which doesn't look very statesmanlike.”

“Wow, it stuns me,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. “It's Darwinian — it's all about survival. …That is not helpful to McConnell.”

In 2006, McConnell was one of Bush's staunchest allies in the Senate, defending the administration's increasingly unpopular war in Iraq.

McConnell even went so far as to force a Senate vote in June 2006 on an amendment that would have called for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops by year's end. The amendment was defeated 93-6.

But according to Bush's memoir, McConnell had a different concern when he met with the president in the Oval Office. Bush said McConnell “has a sharp political nose, and he smelled trouble.”

“Mr. President,” McConnell is quoted as saying, “your unpopularity is going to cost us control of the Congress.”

Bush wrote that he knew “many Americans were tired of my presidency.” The party also was in trouble because of scandals, wasteful spending, earmarks and a failure to deliver on Social Security reform, Bush wrote.

Bush said he responded to McConnell: “Well, Mitch, what do you want me to do about it?”

McConnell, the president wrote, answered: “Mr. President, bring some troops home from Iraq.”

Bush said this was his answer: “Mitch, I believe our presence in Iraq is necessary to protect America, and I will not withdraw troops unless military conditions warrant.”

The president said McConnell did not know at the time that he was considering a surge in troops —– a policy he ultimately adopted, even though it was “the toughest and most unpopular decision of my presidency.”—–

Bush wrote that McConnell later supported the surge — which helped quell the insurgency in Iraq — and “graciously later admitted to me that he had been wrong to suggest a withdrawal.”

On the substance of the war, Bush is trying to show he stayed the course, Desch said.

“McConnell was right that the public stomach for the war had declined pretty precipitously,” he said. “The Republicans lost the midterm elections. Even more damning is, in 2008, when allegedly the surge was working, it didn't really help (Republican presidential nominee) John McCain, who really embraced the surge and the Bush administration's Iraq policy in a big way.”

Sabato said McConnell was right about the political dangers and noted that Republicans are “still out of power” in the Senate.

“That's all traceable back to one George W. Bush,” Sabato said.

The fact that Bush, who appointed McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao, as his labor secretary, would tell a story that did not depict McConnell positively is “more proof that George W. Bush really is out of politics,” Sabato said.

“I guess the royalties are more important,” he said. “He's evening some scores. I didn't know he had some scores to settle with McConnell.”

The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a conservative think tank in Washington, declined comment.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, did not respond to a request for comment. Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the senior Republican on the foreign relations panel, was in Africa and unreachable for comment, according to his office.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., declined comment through his spokesman, and Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., did not respond to a request for comment.

Editor's comment: It is entirely possible Mitch McConnell was simply concerned about an increasing unpopular Iraq war, and couching an objection to it on political grounds was his way of expressing it.

I am going to read Bush's book -- it will make for a great read, I'm sure!