Last week, eleven House Republicans went to the White House and, as the New York Times put it, told "…the president that conditions needed to improve markedly by fall or more Republicans would desert him on the war." I don't think that little news item has gotten quite enough attention. As I noted back in this post…
What we had then, I think, was a Republican party that realized that Nixon was going down — in popularity if not in an impeachment trial — and they threw him overboard to save their own necks. Barry Goldwater, Hugh Scott and I forget who the third one was — three prominent G.O.P. leaders — essentially went to the White House and told Nixon that he would not have solid Republican backing if it came to an impeachment vote and trial. Goldwater even said he was prepared to vote to convict on at least one count. That was when Nixon knew the time had come to have Pat start packing.
That was what it took then. The third messenger, by the way, was House Minority Leader John Rhodes. Hugh Scott was then the Senate Minority Leader and Barry Goldwater was, of course, kind of the Father Figure of the G.O.P. at the time.
The lesson to be learned was this: Nixon could have coped with Democratic opposition. No matter how serious the charges against him, he could always have dismissed them as partisan attacks. No matter how low his popularity went with the nation — and lately, he's about a point ahead of rectal itch — he could always keep his base by telling them it was just a Democratic smear and fear campaign. That won't work against a sizeable Republican opposition.
The thing to remember is that it isn't just eleven Republican Congressfolks. It's eleven warning him there are a lot more ready to hop off the bus. Presumably, some of those are from districts where it might be politically dangerous to oppose Bush now…but they're willing to do so before Election Day rather than lose.
Bush says he doesn't want Democrats dictating timetables to him for ending the war. Sounds to me like Republicans are doing just that.