UPDATE: Castle’s vote on the new funding bill will determine if the meeting in the White House was a bullshit PR stunt.
The bill would provide the military with $42.8 billion to keep operations going through July, buy equipment and train Iraqi and Afghan security forces. Congress would decide shortly before its August recess whether to release an additional $52.8 billion for war spending through September.
VoteVets.org ad provided the last straw
CASTLE (seems to be) getting the picture.
Mike Castle, forced by public pressure and the prospect of campaigning as a George Bush supporter, joined 11 Republican Congressmen (all of whom are worried about reelection) who told Bush:
“The word about the war and its progress cannot come from the White House or even you, Mr. President. There’s no longer any credibility. It has to come from General Petraeus.”
The Washing Post confirms Congressman Useless was in that group:
The meeting, which ran for an hour and a half Tuesday afternoon, was disclosed by participants yesterday as the House prepared to vote this evening on a spending bill that could cut funding for the Iraq war as early as July. GOP moderates told Bush they would stay united against the latest effort by House Democrats to end U.S. involvement in the war. Even Senate Democrats called the House measure unrealistic.
But the meeting between 11 House Republicans, Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, White House political adviser Karl Rove and presidential press secretary Tony Snow was perhaps the clearest sign yet that patience in the party is running out. The meeting, organized by Rep. Charlie Dent (Pa.), one of the co-chairs of the moderate “Tuesday Group,” included Reps. Thomas M. Davis III (Va.), Michael N. Castle (Del.), Todd R. Platts (Pa.), Jim Ramstad (Minn.) and Jo Ann Emerson (Mo.).
Crooks and liars has the Keith Olbermann report on the meeting (and video) which is riveting.
Castle is clearly shitting a brick.