Newly ascendant Democrats challenge Bush

updated 2:14 a.m. ET Jan. 24, 2007

WASHINGTON - Democrats blistered President Bush’s war policy Tuesday night, challenging him to redeem the nation’s credibility — and his own — with an immediate shift toward a diplomatic end to the bloody conflict in Iraq.

“The president took us into this war recklessly,” the Democrats’ chosen messenger, Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, said in his prepared response to Bush’s State of the Union address Tuesday evening. “We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable — and predicted — disarray that has followed.”

Webb, a Vietnam veteran who was Navy secretary during Republican President Reagan’s administration, called for a new direction.

“Not one step back from the war against international terrorism. Not a precipitous withdrawal that ignores the possibility of further chaos,” Webb said. “But an immediate shift toward strong regionally based diplomacy, a policy that takes our soldiers off the streets of Iraq’s cities and a formula that will in short order allow our combat forces to leave Iraq.”

Bush offered no such plan in his speech, nor did he defend his proposed surge of 21,500 troops to Iraq before the most unfriendly joint session of Congress of his tenure.

Instead, the president focused on making the case that “failure would be grievous and far-reaching.” He also issued a long list of domestic policy initiatives centered on such pet Democratic issues as energy independence and health care.

Webb, Pelosi, Reid throw down gauntlet
Newly installed majority Democrats had made clear since Friday that they believe Bush no longer controls the nation’s policy agenda, especially on Iraq.

“Unfortunately, tonight the president demonstrated he has not listened to Americans’ single greatest concern: the war in Iraq,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a joint statement. “We will continue to hold him accountable for changing course in Iraq.”

In a speech written himself and previewed by senior Democratic officials, Webb, a freshman senator, acknowledged some of Bush’s domestic policy proposals. “We in the Democratic Party hope that this administration is serious” about improving education, health care and speeding the recovery of hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, he said.

NBC VIDEO Obama: 'Skepticism' over Bush plan Jan. 23: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., talks to MSBNC-TV's Keith Olberman and Chris Matthews about President Bush's State of the Union address. MSNBC

Webb also prodded Bush to support the House-passed minimum wage increase and nurture an economy that restores the middle class. And he said Democrats would work with Bush to promote energy independence.

But he chose harsher rhetoric for what he framed Bush’s abuse of the public’s loyalty, trust and welfare in the rush to war.

“The war’s costs to our nation have been staggering,” he said. “Financially. The damage to our reputation around the world. The lost opportunities to defeat the forces of international terrorism, and especially the precious blood of our citizens who have stepped forward to serve.”

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