War May Hurt GOP in Heartland

War May Hurt GOP in Heartland
As unease about Iraq mounts, Republicans worry how that will affect their election bids.

By Maura Reynolds and Johanna Neuman, Times Staff Writers
10:20 PM PST, March 25, 2006


SEYMOUR, Ind. — As Liz Larrison cooks up breakfast for customers at her family's diner in a farm town long friendly to the Republican Party, she listens as the regulars sling political opinions as easily as she slings ham steaks.

Increasingly, the talk these days revolves around Iraq, and it is the kind of talk that could spell trouble for the GOP. "Nobody is against the people fighting the war. I think you'll hear that everywhere," she said. "We're just against it going on and on."

On top of other woes confronting Republicans, the continuing violence in Iraq and President Bush's message last week that the deployment would last several more years has heightened Republicans' concerns about how voters such as Larrison will view the party in the November elections.

In fact, Larrison — who, like many of her customers, considers herself independent but tends to vote for Republicans — says she will vote against her Republican congressman.

Even in the heartland, Democrats suddenly see advantage on an issue usually considered a GOP trump card: national security.

Baron Hill, who hopes to unseat the Republican who represents this region of Indiana, said it used to be hard for Democrats to criticize the Iraq war without sounding unpatriotic.

"Not anymore," Hill said in an interview. "I think people are very skeptical now about what is going on over there, and you have more freedom to talk about Iraq."


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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-iraqpol26mar26,0,7789906.story?coll=la-home-headlines

in 1999 when Bush first ran for President? It was obvious he was unqualified then and you don't wait for a war to go sour before you oppose it.

N/T, dammit!

Blow jobs were important, ya see. The economy was BOOMING, and of course the Clenis had absolutely NOTHING to do with that. And Monkeyboy SAID he didn't believe in NATION BUILDING like that librul Al Gore, after all. Why, he'd NEVER lie, would he???

Plus, he was the guy everyone wanted to have a beer with.

The clown was probably using the PDB with the "Bin Ladin Determined..." notation as a coaster for his beer bottle....

at the helm.