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President George Bush's hour in the spotlight was brief. The day after his State of the Union speech all three networks led their newscasts from Capitol Hill instead of the White House. The Story of the Day was the Iraq War and the vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to oppose, but not to prevent, Bush's troop reinforcement in Baghdad.

This resolution is unlikely to be approved by the full Senate since only one Republican, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, joined all of the Democrats on the committee in supporting it. However, NBC's Chip Reid noted that "Republicans were also deeply split…only a single Republican made a clear statement in favor of the President's build-up." Republican John Warner has drafted a second resolution, whose wording ABC's Jake Tapper called "tamer" than the first draft's "not in the national interest." CBS' Sharyl Attkisson predicted "subtle language changes" leading to a bipartisan majority in the Senate voting against the President's plan.

ABC's George Stephanopoulos reported that the lack of Republican support for the wording was the result of furious lobbying by the White House: "They actually believe they made some progress." An unnamed senator told him the eventual full floor debate will be "real, gut-level, heart-felt." And CBS' Jim Axelrod (no link) characterized the White House reaction to the committee vote as "defiant" playing a soundbite from Vice President Dick Cheney's interview on CNN's The Situation Room to make his point: "We are moving forward…it is far too soon for the talking heads on television to conclude that it is impossible to do."

Andrew Tyndall 1/25/07 6:17:44 pm

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