Even as pushback continues against Senate Democrats who want to limit debate on Iraq to a single resolution, GOPers are privately fretting that they are losing the debate in the press:
The day after Senate Republicans effectively blocked debate on an anti-”surge” resolution, some in the caucus are growing increasingly alarmed over indications that they are losing the public relations battle to the Democrats. The Los Angeles Times says that although Republicans continue “to insist…that they simply want a fair debate,” by yesterday some Republicans were concerned “the public would misunderstand their stance.” The Capitol Hill publication Roll Call describes a concerned Senate Republican leadership yesterday struggling “to shift their focus away from complaints about parliamentary procedure and onto which party is best supporting the troops.” Republicans, adds Roll Call, “found themselves on the losing end of the public relations fight as they woke up to headlines across the country pinning the blame squarely on them. ’It doesn’t matter what’s going on the floor. It’s all about media,’ one senior GOP aide said Tuesday.”
When reporters are openly describing, without any sense of remorse, how the Democrats have gamed them into pinning blame squarely on the Republicans, you are definitely not winning the PR contest. But how’s this for a weird consolation prize: The New York Times editorial board writes that the Democrats share the blame!