White House: "What we've got here is a failure to communicate"

An Offering of Detail But No New Substance
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 1, 2005; A01

...Bush gave no ground to critics who want a major course change, and the plan he released yesterday offered nothing new substantively. Short of changing conditions on the ground, Bush faces enormous challenges in turning around public attitudes on the war. The American people have grown increasingly sour on Iraq in public polls, and most no longer approve of the way the president is handling the war...

The latest speech won Bush few converts in Washington, with opposition leaders rushing out critiques, in some cases even before he had finished speaking in Annapolis. "The president was basically repackaging things and saying everything's fine when every day we read that things are not fine," said former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright. "I so wish I could believe him. I like to believe an American president. But he's got such a credibility issue."...

Now back from Asia and a Thanksgiving sojourn in Texas, Bush intends a sustained defense of his Iraq policy... He summoned a leading Democrat to his own defense, citing an op-ed article opposing timetables for withdrawal that was written by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), who ran for vice president on the ticket opposing Bush in 2000 and lost his bid for the party's presidential nomination to challenge Bush in 2004. In doing so, the White House hoped to turn the tables on the Democrats. "What it does is highlight a split within the Democratic Party," said a senior official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Privately, though, officials acknowledge that they have failed to communicate their message to the public. "We haven't put it out there in a fashion that has sunk in," said a second official who was not authorized to speak on the record...

Lieberman will always vote pro Israel and anti everybody else.