Pelosi calls Iraq a 'failure'

The Political ^

[Sub-Driver]

Pelosi calls Iraq a 'failure' By: Mike Allen February 10, 2008 01:16 PM EST

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said twice Sunday that Iraq “is a failure,” adding that President Bush’s troop surge has “not produced the desired effect.”

“The purpose of the surge was to create a secure time for the government of Iraq to make the political change to bring reconciliation to Iraq,” Pelosi said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “They have not done that.”

The speaker hastened to add: “The troops have succeeded, God bless them.”

Pelosi’s harsh verdict is a reminder of the dilemma for Democrats as they head into this fall’s presidential and congressional elections:

They need to make the case that the country needs to depart from the direction set by Bush. Yet they don’t want to look like naysayers at a time when Iraq has become more stable, albeit still violent.

Republican strategists say one of their few chances to avoid a blowout in November is to paint Democrats as defeatists.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) sparked a furious response from the right last year when he said the Iraq war “is lost.”

Bush announced in September that the surge policy of additional troops would allow a gradual reduction in forces as a “return on success.” Improvements in Iraq helped revive the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), now the front-runner for the Republican nomination.

Shortly after Pelosi spoke on Sunday with Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Iraq, a suicide bomber killed more than 20 civilians at a checkpoint north of Baghdad, the U.S. military reported.

Pelosi’s comment came during a discussion of her call for “the redeployment of our troops out of Iraq.”

[Sub-Driver]

Military advice from General Sergeant Lt Private Pelosi...

[illiac]

Pot calling the kettle black.......

[Def Conservative]

She’s the failure.

[Jewels1091]

she is a piece of crap...not fit to sit in any office.

[JennysCool]

Takes one to ... well, you know.

[the invisib1e hand]

is this what they mean by “fifth column?”

[lookout88]

obama and clinton think so too. don’t let them win.

[plain talk]

“The purpose of the surge was to create a secure time for the government of Iraq to make the political change to bring reconciliation to Iraq,” Pelosi said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “They have not done that.”

The speaker hastened to add: “The troops have succeeded, God bless them.”

LOL! I'm confused. Did they fail or succeed?

[RightWhale]

The troops have succeeded

but Iraq is a failure. Maybe she should let Obama write her speeches so she can say nothing without appearing to say something stupid.

[The Forgotten Man]

Does she even matter anymore????

[CTSeditor]

Check your own report card first Pelosi. Iraq will look like a great success then!

[adorno]

“The purpose of the surge was to create a secure time for the government of Iraq to make the political change to bring reconciliation to Iraq,” Pelosi said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “They have not done that.”

By that standard, the government in the U.S. is also a failure. But, for politics' sake, Iraq has to be called a failure in the face of all the successes we've had in that war and in constituting a running government. To admit success by Bush in Iraq as a success would be to call the democratic party's policy a failure. We'll never hear the truth from the democrats.

[nyyankeefan]

from something that has not completed anything of consequence after taking the speaker’s chair.....piglosi and the rest of the lib/dems are anti-american anti-semetic and against anything the US endeavors to succeed!!! even the lib/dem msm has printed the success in iraq...only defeatocrats want the US to lose....they believe ~ if it is bad for the US it is good for lib/dems!!!!

[chemicalman]

Pelosi said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

make you wonder if she was reading something off the CNN telepromp that she wasn't supposed to, or something that CNN stuck in there. Either way, she's the failure.

[ILS21R]

Of course it’s a failure. Until queen hillary is crowned. Then it will be a success.

[Brilliant]

Nancy, if it’s a failure, then why haven’t you forced GW to get out?

[ClaudiusI]

Pelosi? Is she still around?

[JohnLongIsland]

of course it's a failure when you're bin-laden's self appointed press secretary. she even has the home team uniform to prove it.

[Rush4U]

Classic projection. What she really means is, she has failed at her Speaker job.

[mountainlyons]

And the Polls says:... Pelosi not doing what was expected!!