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Friday, June 29, 2007

“I pray... that the president and my fellow senators or members of Congress will adopt a bipartisan foreign policy with regard to Iraq, even at this late date, because that would be the best and strongest stance for our country.” — Sen. Richard Lugar

In a recent interview with National Journal's James A. Barnes, Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar (R) discussed why he decided to break with the Bush administration and call for withdrawing some troops from Iraq. Edited excerpts follow.

Lugar: Most Republicans that I have visited with appreciate the speech. Many have read it. Most have seen a summary of it. And several have wanted to talk at some length to me, and so I have enjoyed several conversations as each senator makes known his or her feelings.

Q: Any general feelings that they've made known to you?

Lugar: Those that are in general agreement with what I've had to say are very eager to know what the action steps will be [and] what plan I might have. And I have indicated to them I do not have an action plan per se, although I look forward to talking with [National Security Advisor] Steve Hadley this morning and getting some indication at least of his reaction or that of the White House to what we had to say beyond the press secretary's comments that have been made.

Q: What's been the reaction of your constituents?

Lugar: The reaction has been very favorable and the press coverage has been substantial. Two spot polls taken -- one by the Indianapolis Star in which people simply on their computers press a button, yes or no, as to whether you agree with Senator Lugar or not, and one on one of the local televisions -- have come to fairly similar results. The TV poll of the first 500 callers was 86-14 [percent] on behalf of people agreeing with my ideas. And in the Star poll they've had over 4,100 responses to date and they've run 81-19 [percent] in my favor.

Q: How long had you been planning to give the speech?

Lugar: I've been working on the speech for the last three weeks. And I did not know a precise time that would be available on the Senate floor. I wanted to give the speech before we had the Fourth of July recess. And that led to this week and an opportunity that was presented by the Democratic leadership about 8 o'clock on Monday night for me to have an unobstructed 45 or 50 minutes.

Q: Had you sought another time to do it?

Lugar: I had not sought a time prior to that. If that had not worked out on Monday, we would have tried for Tuesday or Wednesday, but as it turned out it was fortuitous that the time was available on Monday.

Q: Did you talk to anyone in the Pentagon or in Iraq in preparing your speech?

Lugar: No. I did not have any conversations about the speech per se. I have visited frequently with military leaders as they have come to the Senate or as they've made communications available otherwise.

Q: What's it like to break with a president of your own party on a major foreign policy issue?

Lugar: The point that I've tried to make -- I pray, as I said in the speech, that the president and my fellow senators or members of Congress will adopt a bipartisan foreign policy with regard to Iraq, even at this late date, because that would be the best and strongest stance for our country.

Therefore, it's not a question of breaking with the president; it's a question of offering advice, but this time in a public forum as opposed to private conversations we've had before to try to see whether there is in fact the possibility for this bipartisan cooperation, not only in the Senate but with congressional Democratic leaders and the president.

Q: What is it like to go public to try to persuade a president to change course?

Lugar: Well I would prefer to work privately and more confidentially so that the outcome does not have the traces of controversy or deep argument. Sometimes that has not been possible. I remember vividly my experiences -- it was 21 years ago -- but I was asked by President Reagan to co-chair a delegation to the Philippine election and I did so.

It's obvious, as I've read history books of people writing about all of that, that my observations in the Philippines were very surprising, even disconcerting, to Don Regan and maybe even to the president. The president thought fraud and abuse had occurred on both sides and said so in a national press conference. So this led to considerable difficulties for the next four days until the president, out of duress, decided that perhaps I had been accurate in my comments and summation, and came forward with the Reagan Doctrine that said we will no longer tolerate totalitarianism of the left or authoritarianism of the right.

That was distinctly different from the policy that by and large had been favored by the late Jeanne Kirkpatrick and others that saw authoritarians often as our allies against communism. So, that did not occur altogether privately, although it might have. It was in fact a very public situation, even involving split screens with Ferdinand Marcos from the Philippines.

Likewise with the anti-apartheid situation, I worked as carefully as I could to craft something as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee that would have a very, very large bipartisan majority in both houses of Congress. And [Sen.] Nancy Kassebaum... and I had a very good audience with President Reagan encouraging him to support this.

Ultimately with the advice of advisers that were close around him at the time, he did not and vetoed the legislation. We were successful in overriding that veto, the only one that was overridden on foreign policy during the entire administration. And that was not a pleasant task -- out on the Senate floor speaking and persuading senators to go against the president on that. But for at least the sake of our continuity with history as well as with Africa and specifically South Africa, I thought it was vitally important.

Q: Did you consider your speech on Iraq an unpleasant task?

Lugar: Yes. I would prefer that earlier conversations that I've had with the president had been more effective.

Q: You said the White House should take the lead in changing course in Iraq, but if it doesn't, can you foresee any circumstances where you might vote to force it to change course?

Lugar: Yes, I can see circumstances in which I would work with other senators on either legislation or reports. I'm not certain what form [that] might take, but I would be open to such suggestions.

Q: Do you think your remarks give other Republicans more latitude to call on the administration to change course on Iraq?

Lugar: Perhaps, but that has to be a judgment of each one of us in public life. Each one of us are elected officials with constituents, so I have not made the comments with the thought of offering latitude for somebody in the next election.

But I suspect that many senators who have visited with me are very pleased that I gave a speech that was very comprehensive. Some would feel it goes on interminably. But at the same time, at 5,000 words, we've covered most of the bases. The first comments that have been of criticism are not necessarily superficial, but frequently it's obvious the critic has not read very far because rapidly he or she would have found at least some rather cogent argument meeting whatever they had to say.

Q: It doesn't sound like you've gotten a lot of heat from the Republicans.

Lugar: No. I think the response -- sometimes this is in the eye of the beholder -- but I'm encouraged by the fact that as I walk down the corridors or in the subway of the Senate, the very large number of staff members, or tourists or people that I have never met who make a point to come up to me and indicate how excited they are, how proud they are and how supportive they are.

I'm not taking names or asking for their cards. I just note that I believe that there is a very, very large amount of sentiment hoping that the leaders of our country can work together constructively at this point. I think those who have at least read the speech feel that I've offered a plan to do so.