July 13, 2004 5:35 AM

It looks as if the natives are getting restless

Conservatives crucial to Bush's re-election restive about Iraq war

I am bitterly disappointed in his actions with this war. It is a total travesty.

- Tom Hutchinson

Yes, the vast majority of Conservatives are still strongly supporting Bush. But is it indicative of problems on the reservation when a portion of his base are sickened by what his happening in Iraq?

Conservatives, the backbone of Bush's political base, are increasingly uneasy about the Iraq conflict and the steady drumbeat of violence in postwar Iraq, Halper and some of his fellow Republicans say. The conservatives' anxiety was fueled by the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal and has not abated with the transfer of political power to the interim Iraqi government.

Some Republicans fear angry conservatives will stay home in November, undercutting Bush's re-election bid....

Jack Walters, 59, a self-described "classical conservative" from Columbia, Mo., said he hadn't decided which candidate to vote for.

"Having been through Vietnam, I thought no, never again," Walters said. "But here comes the same thing again, and I'm old enough to recognize the lame reasons given for going into Iraq, and they made me ill."

The tension has been building in official Washington, where conservative members of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees have pressed the administration for answers on combat operations; disagreed with the Pentagon on troop levels; and expressed frustration with an administration they feel has shown them disdain by withholding information.

Yes, we are likely talking about a very small percentage of Conservative Republicans, but I do think this is noteworthy. These are people who recognize the clusterf**k that is the war in Iraq, and the questions they're demanding answers to are the questions the rest of us have been asking for sometime now.

To date, Bush has ignored the uncomfortable questions raised by his base. He does so at his own peril, however. If he keeps this up, he may not even have an opportunity to steal this election.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on July 13, 2004 5:35 AM.

Fair and balanced, my @$$ was the previous entry in this blog.

Well, they said it couldn't happen in 2000 is the next entry in this blog.

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