Our look a couple of days back at Senator Gordon Smith's striking comments on Iraq argued that his statement wasn't very coherent - didn't have a well-reasoned take 0n the situation in Iraq or on what to do next. What did hold it together was a tone - of sadness in what had transpired, and a regret in having placed faith in the Bush Administration's handling of it.
The tone is clear enough to appear to mark Smith now as "anti-war" (though he still seems to hold out, alongside the idea of a pullback, the concept of burrowing in and hunkering down for a decade and more). More clearly, it marks him as an administration critic.
The subuject of another Republican senator, a till-now loyalist, turning on the White House over Iraq, was enough to draw some back and forth at the press briefing ("the gaggle") this morning. For your reading, here's the transcript of what was said.
Taken generally, Senator Smith appears not to be in high favor at 1600 Pennsylvania. The White House also said on the record that it doesn't know if its party's senator from Oregon is in favor of democracy or not.