Once Boon, Ties to Bush May Be Bust

[cal04]

Fate has turned Representative Mike Sodrel's re-election campaign into a test case of the impact of public discontent with President Bush and the war in Iraq. Two years ago, Mr. Sodrel, a Republican and the owner of a trucking company, stood shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Bush in support of the invasion of Iraq, and his campaign featured a procession of appearances with Mr. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and several cabinet members. Mr. Bush won 59 percent of the vote in the district, and the Republican tide helped push him to victory by a few hundred votes over the Democratic incumbent, Baron Hill.

This fall he faces a rematch against Mr. Hill, but like Republican incumbents around the country, Mr. Sodrel is running at a time when disillusionment with the war has turned association with Mr. Bush from a credential to a question mark in the eyes of many voters. "We have lost so many young men that I think it is time we need to make some changes," said Betty Robbins, a shopkeeper in Scottsburg, Ind., who said she voted for Mr. Bush in 2004 and then pulled the lever for every Republican on the ticket, including Mr. Sodrel. Ms. Robbins said that she now viewed Mr. Bush as "asinine," and that if she went to the polls this fall she was unlikely to vote again for Mr. Sodrel. "I would jump the fence," she said.

Republicans around the country are openly debating how to distance themselves from voters' dissatisfaction with Mr. Bush and the war, but without further tarnishing their party and its public face in the process. For Mr. Sodrel, who won the razor-close race on Mr. Bush's coattails, the problem is especially acute. At a public meeting recently in Scottsburg, Mr. Sodrel said he stood by his support for the war and for the president, although he acknowledged that it was not always easy. "I know a lot of people have said they want to see the president or the vice president come in and raise money for them, they just don't want to get caught in public with them," Mr. Sodrel said, laughing at the awkwardness many Republicans feel toward the White House.

"My attitude is, he is my president," Mr. Sodrel continued. "My wife and I have been married 38 years and we don't agree all the time. When there are things we don't agree on, I tell him so. But I am happy to have him come in here and stump for our campaign." Mr. Sodrel declined to say whether with the benefit of hindsight he would have supported the invasion of Iraq. "I don't think coulda-shoulda-woulda is very helpful right now," he said. But his tone has changed noticeably since he returned from a visit to Iraq last year with glowing reports of progress toward democracy. "Iraq doesn't have to be a safe place for us to bring the soldiers home," Mr. Sodrel said, a formulation he repeats often on the campaign trail. "It merely has to be a country that is well organized enough that it can deal with its internal problems. There is no place in that part of the world that there won't be a car bomb or a suicide bomber."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/25/us/25indiana.html

[Skittles]

1. too late, bastards

he is yours

[kiraboo]

2. That's right. And nobody's gonna forget it.

[Inland]

3. "I don't think coulda-shoulda-woulda is very helpful right now,"

It is in deciding who to VOTE for, you FUCK. The article is about you running scared, because, what else is there to base a vote on except your record of enabling stupidity and lies?!? I mean, besides Hollywood and man on dog hybrid sex. God help us all.