Eighteen House Democrats meet Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld to discuss Iraq [View All]

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Eighteen_House_Democrats_meet_Bush_Cheney_1215.html

As part of his two-week effort to regain credibility on the war in Iraq, President Bush and senior members of his Cabinet met privately with 18 moderate House Democrats on Wednesday in order to gauge their concerns and once again make the case for the war, ROLL CALL reports Thursday. Excerpts:

Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called the Democrats to the White House for the hour-long session. The meeting was held just one day before the Iraqi national elections.

Publicly, Democrats characterized the meeting as a positive give-and-take session. Privately, however, some worried that the White House may be trying to provide itself political cover

The 18 Democrats included at least four ranking members — Reps. John Spratt (S.C.) of Budget, Jane Harman (Calif.) of Intelligence, Tom Lantos (Calif.) of International Relations and Ike Skelton (Mo.) of Armed Services — as well as other Democrats who either voted for the October 2002 resolution authorizing U.S. involvement in Iraq or have not embraced a timeline for troop withdrawal.