White House lips zipped on war meeting

WASHINGTON, May 10 (UPI) -- The White House remained tight-lipped Thursday on House Republicans bluntly telling President Bush GOP support for the Iraq war was tenuous.

Spokesman Tony Snow, repeatedly bombarded with questions in a news briefing about the meeting Tuesday between Bush and 11 moderate lawmakers in the president's residential area, refused to discuss any details about it or its broader political implications.

"We don't read them (the meetings) out," he said. "Why? Because it's (the confidentiality) designed to build a sense of trust and confidence and people can say what's on their minds."

He denied there was disunity among Republicans on Capitol Hill on the war, saying instead that disarray was the hallmark of Democrats in funding ongoing military operations.

The White House wasn't talking, but other participants were. According to news reports, Bush was told GOP support for the war was waning; that the president no longer had credibility in talking about progress in the war; their constituents were increasingly against continued involvement; and the United States must find a way to extricate itself from the conflict.

The president would apparently continue to have GOP support in the current battle with Democrats over supplemental war funding for the remainder of fiscal 2007, but beyond that was a matter of conjecture, they indicated.

The meeting lasted about an hour and a half, sources reportedly said. The White House characterized it as part of Bush's ongoing outreach to Capitol Hill on the war. But the import of the blunt views expressed wouldn't be lost on the administration. A defection of Republicans on the war would doom administration efforts to still win the conflict. On a practical, legislative level, Republican defections would threaten the ability of GOP lawmakers to block overturning of a presidential veto.