McCain, DeWine, Turn On Bush's Iraq Policy

From ABC.

Mcain is on the stump for Republican Sen. Mike DeWine in Ohio:

Republican Sen. John McCain, a staunch defender of the Iraq war, on Tuesday faulted the Bush administration for misleading Americans into believing the conflict would be "some kind of day at the beach."

The potential 2008 presidential candidate, who a day earlier had rejected calls for withdrawing U.S. forces, said the administration had failed to make clear the challenges facing the military.

"I think one of the biggest mistakes we made was underestimating the size of the task and the sacrifices that would be required," McCain said. "Stuff happens, mission accomplished, last throes, a few dead-enders. I'm just more familiar with those statements than anyone else because it grieves me so much that we had not told the American people how tough and difficult this task would be."

Ouch! That hadda hurt!

Still McCain is still toeing the "a timetable would enable the bad guys line" so he hasn't had a complete epiphany.

DeWine, on the other hand, put it as plainly as any damn lib'rul could have:

DeWine said Congress would not have had the chance to authorize the war if the intelligence on Iraq's military capability and intentions were accurate.

"It would never have come up for a vote so it would have been an entirely different situation," he said.

Double ouch! That's a Republican version of a bitch-slap from the incumbent Senator who feels a Democrat breathing down his neck. It sounds like something Sherrod Brown's old Dem primary opponent could have said.

Welcome to the ranks of "traitors and defeatists", Senator.