GOP Moderates Huddle With Bush on Iraq

Moderate Republicans met with Bush and his closest aides yesterday in a private meeting one participant called "a remarkable, candid conversation" the Washington Post reports. The representatives made clear their frustration with the war in Iraq, and its unpopularity with their constituents, as both parties attempt to hammer out a compromise.

Participants were "as frank as they possibly could about their districts and their feelings about where the American people are on the war,” one Senator told the New York Times. According to an NBC report, the president responded:  "I don't want to pass this off to another president. I don't want to pass this off, particularly, to a Democratic president." (More Iraq appropriations stories.)