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No More “Viva Bush” For Him, I Guess

It’s not every day that New Mexico (or, more accurately, one of our representatives) is in the national news.  When we do make the national news, it is usually because our governor has done or said something really embarrassing (which happens only every other day) or LANL has lost another hard drive filled with top secret materials.  […]

It’s not every day that New Mexico (or, more accurately, one of our representatives) is in the national news.  When we do make the national news, it is usually because our governor has done or said something really embarrassing (which happens only every other day) or LANL has lost another hard drive filled with top secret materials.  So it is refreshing that the wire services should be carrying a story about our senior Senator that does not involve any of this. 

As you have all probably heard by now, Domenici is the latest one of the greybeards, so to speak, in the Senate to begin declaring dissatisfaction with the present state of Iraq policy.  This is a long way from the 2000 convention and the New Mexico delegation’s cries of “viva Bush!”  Warner grumbled earlier in the year (before falling back into line for a little while), Lugar joined the chorus just at the end of last month, he was followed by Voinovich, and now Pete has sided with them.  Domenici’s defection, like Lugar’s, is important because turning against the war is not politically necessary for either of them in the same way that it probably was for, say, Gordon Smith or Norm Coleman.  Like Lugar’s view expressed in his recent speech, Domenici’s position is essentially, “The ISG was right.”  As an imaginative slogan of political rebellion, it leaves something to be desired.  As a foreign policy view, it is an improvement over the status quo.  As a sufficient change in the foreign policy thinking of leading Republicans, it is woefully lacking, but that is to be expected.   

Back home, Pete is fairly popular, which makes his decision to break with the White House a bit more interesting.  He cannot actually be worried about his re-election, and I don’t think concern about re-election is a major reason why he has done this.  New Mexicans never throw out an incumbent Senator, especially not one as widely liked as Domenici.  Domenici was instrumental in helping to keep the base open in Albuquerque, and as Budget Committee chairman for all those years New Mexico never went begging for its already disproportionate take from the Treasury.  He has even covered himself on immigration this time around, so there will be fewer defections from his Republican supporters than there would have been had he backed the amnesty bill.  His support for the war was one of the major problems anyone back home would have had with him, but even then his re-election was never in jeopardy because of this.  The Domenici and Lugar break with the administration is a result of the public return of Republican “realist” politicians to the forefront of the Congressional GOP–the Senate and House minority leadership is nowhere to be found in all of this.  Besides, the Democratic “bench” is extremely shallow.  Except for Tom Udall, currently representing NM-03, they have no one who could seriously attempt a run and hope to win.

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