Iran Offers Hope of Biparisanship
JPod looks at the Iranian mess and concludes there are no easy answers, but one giant opportunity:
There is one, and only one, advantage to this terrifyingly difficult situation: It may allow the partisan stalemate on foreign policy to be broken. President Bush and Howard Dean agree on very little save that Iran can’t be allowed to go nuclear. So – and this is an entirely serious proposal – let them break bread together on the subject.
The president should invite leading Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, sooner rather than later, to Camp David for a major policy summit with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld and Intelligence Director John Negroponte. He could say, very plainly, that the United States faces a crisis and that it would be in the best interest of the nation and the world for there to be a bipartisan consensus on what to do about Iran.
He should have officials from the CIA, Defense Intelligence and the National Security Agency offer serious briefings on what we know and don’t know about the situation. And then he should lead a series of no-holds-barred conversations about the possible options and ways forward.
Why? He gives three answers:
This is a sensible idea for several reasons. First: The president has only 32 months left to serve in office, and lacks an anointed or even putative successor. Iran will be a challenge for the foreseeable future; he should attempt to give both parties ownership of a policy that can survive him.
Second, by seeking bipartisanship in the most open possible way at this relatively early moment in the confrontation, Bush might ensure that recalcitrant elements in the military and the diplomatic corps won’t be able to hijack the policymaking.
Finally, as your grandmother said about trying chicken soup to help cure a cold: Maybe an Iran summit wouldn’t help, but when it comes to a situation this fluid and complex, it really couldn’t hurt.
I’m all for bipartisanship, but this sounds like UN-style diplomacy with the political opposition; nevertheless, the first point is the strongest – the Iranian problem will outlast the Bush administration, on that we can, unfortunately, rely…
It’s not a bad idea. As I alluded to in my comment on an earlier posting, it seems no one wants to discuss what to do with Iraq, because everyone seems to realize there’s no solution that will be easy. If it’s going to be difficult no matter what, it would be good to get Democrats on board now in acknowledging that publically, so they can’t play to the Atrios crowd and just snipe from the sidelines.
Oh, taking shots at Atrios, are we? To that I can only reply – open thread…
I agree with Dennis – this idea eliminates the b.s. about how the “Democrats weren’t consulted” and so forth. Also, someone may actually come up with the one good idea that liberals are allowed in a lifetime.
My comment above was meant to refer to Iran, not Iraq. (Though the pointless sideline sniping would probably hold for Iraq, too.)