Bush: Iraq commitment is not open-ended

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - President Bush told House Democrats on Saturday the U.S. military commitment in Iraq "is not open-ended" and the Baghdad government must show tangible improvement on the political front.

As Congress considers resolutions opposing Bush's proposal to send 21,500 additional troops to the region, the president acknowledged, "I put out a plan that has caused a lot of debate on Iraq."

He said he listened to many House Democrats, whose party swept Republicans from power on Capitol Hill in the November elections by focusing largely on the unpopular war. "I took a lot of time thinking about how best to achieve an objective of a country governing, sustaining, and defending itself," the president told lawmakers at their retreat at a Virginia resort.

Bush said he settled on a plan that "I genuinely believe has the best chance of succeeding."

Mentioning Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Bush told the Democrats: "I do know we agree on some things and that is that the Maliki government is going to have to show strong leadership."

He said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., briefed him on her recent trip to Iraq. "She said loud and clear, 'Mr. President, you've got to make it clear to the Iraqi people that their government has got to perform.'"

"I agree, Madam Speaker," Bush told lawmakers.

"There's also got to be success on the political front. They've got to pass an oil law. They've got to amend their constitution so that all segments of society believe the government is working. They've got to spend their money on reconstruction projects," the president said.

"There's benchmarks that they have got to achieve and I have made it clear to the Iraqi government ... our commitment is not open-ended."

Following the thumping that Democrats gave the president's party in the November elections, Bush has granted several of the new majority's demands, providing some weight to his claim of seeking bipartisan consensus on some public policy issues.

He has acknowledged making mistakes in Iraq, fired Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and surrendered the fight for John Bolton to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Reflecting the target set by Democrats, Bush has promised a plan to balance the budget by 2012 after presiding over record deficits and tax cuts.

Also, the president tentatively has agreed to increasing the federal minimum wage. The House and Senate have passed competing versions of this legislation.

Pelosi and caucus chairman Rahm Emanuel (news, bio, voting record), R-Ill., said Democrats, who have spent two days at a Williamsburg resort celebrating their new position of power and talking issues, would ask Bush questions that focus on the war in Iraq.

Democrats have yet to answer conclusively what a nonbinding resolution that opposes Bush's decision to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq might say. It also is not clear what should be done if the buildup fails to stop the violence. Options could include stripping the budget of war money, capping the number of troops in Iraq or refusing to pay for future deployments.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the question-and-answer portion of Bush's appearance was closed to the press to be consistent with his appearances at gatherings of congressional Republicans. At those events, Bush spoke in public but the questioning was closed "to provide frank and open discussion," Stanzel said.

He said Bush last attended a House Democrat retreat in early 2001, right after he took office.

Democrats said their gathering this year was a time to celebrate, out of public view, their election successes. But what they really were celebrating, one leader said, was their new role in policymaking.

"Euphoric may be a little heavy, but certainly very, very energized and happy and optimistic about the ability to do things," said Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (news, bio, voting record), D-Md., describing the mood.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070203/ap_on_go_pr_wh/house_democrats [link]