John Edwards Will Challenge Bush And Congress Tonight

John Edwards has purchased two minutes of ad time on MSNBC tonight to rebut President Bush’s speech on Iraq. Bush will speak tonight at 9 p.m. to ask for more time in Iraq to let the surge work. Edwards has timed the ad to show between Bush’s speech and the Democratic response. “Unfortunately, the president is pressing on with the only strategy he’s ever had, more time, more troops, and more war,” Edwards says in the ad, according to excerpts provided to the media by his campaign. Edwards argues that Bush was wrong to ask for more troops, and wants a “firm timeline for withdrawal.” “In May, he vetoed a plan to end the war, demanded more time to show the surge could work, and Congress gave it to him,” Edwards says. “Now, after General Petraeus reports the surge has produced no progress toward a political solution, what does the president want? More time for the surge to work, when all of us know it won’t.” Then Edwards drops in a little shot towards some of his political rivals by saying, “But Congress must answer to the American people. Tell Congress you know the truth, they have the power to end this war and you expect them to use it. When the president asks for more money and more time, Congress needs to tell him he only gets one choice: a firm timeline for withdrawal.”
Alan Cosgrove