Republican Infighting

It has been great to watch the aftermath of Matthew Dowd's NYTimes interview:

In a wide-ranging interview here, Mr. Dowd called for a withdrawal from Iraq and expressed his disappointment in Mr. Bush’s leadership.

He criticized the president as failing to call the nation to a shared sense of sacrifice at a time of war, failing to reach across the political divide to build consensus and ignoring the will of the people on Iraq. He said he believed the president had not moved aggressively enough to hold anyone accountable for the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and that Mr. Bush still approached governing with a “my way or the highway” mentality reinforced by a shrinking circle of trusted aides. …

In speaking out, Mr. Dowd became the first member of Mr. Bush’s inner circle to break so publicly with him.

Initially, the White House and Republican Noise Machine response was to accuse Dowd of having personal issues because his son is going to Iraq:

Two leading Bush spokespersons -- Dan Bartlett on Sunday and Dana Perino at her press briefing today -- have since suggested that Dowd's disenchantment with their man stems partly from "personal" reasons and "emotions." Bush joined that angle today, attributing Dowd's criticism on the war to to an "emotional" reaction.

Since the initial line of attack didn't seem to stick, we see the latest attempt, exposed by ThinkProgress, to smear Matthew Dowd, through who better than Robert Novak.

Salon.com has a piece detailing how Dowd joined the Bush team and his role as the brain behind the Architect himself, Karl Rove.

And just when things were bad, another conservative turned on Bush and the GOP.

~BT