Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Iraq visits popular with U.S. senators

|
|
 
  
Published: Aug. 1, 2007 at 9:33 AM

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- Making visits to troops in Iraq is popular among U.S. senators, as at least 76 of them have done so in the last year, The Hill reported Wednesday.

The Washington newspaper's survey found 18 senators have never made the trip, with one of them, Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., calling the junkets political "dog and pony shows."

The leader of the traveling pack is Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., who has visited Iraq 10 times, including three trips in the past year. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., an ardent supporter of the war effort, has made eight trips to Iraq.

Eight other senators have made at least six trips since the war began in March 2003.

Two Republican senators who have called for the Bush administration to change its tactics have never been -- Sens. George Voinovich of Ohio and Pete Domenici of New Mexico, The Hill said.

James Thurber, professor of political science and director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University, told the newspaper the visits make sense politically.

"The more trips you go give you more authority," Thurber said.

Topics: George Voinovich, Jack Reed, James Inhofe, James Thurber, Pete Domenici
© 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 27
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego wins Finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
View Caption
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego, California watches confetti rain down as she wins the two-day Scripps National Spelling Bee championship, May 31, 2012, in National Harbor, Maryland. Nandipati successfully spelled the word .* guetapens *, meaning to lure or ambush. UPI/Mike Theiler
fark
Driving drunk and unlicensed, with a kid not even buckled let alone in a safety seat, en route to...
Man killed in Spencer fire. The lava lamps must have ignited the blacklight posters
Passenger jet crashes into apartment building in Nigerian capitol. Over 150 princes, bank officials,...
I'll see your zombie apocalypse, and raise you "swarms of deadly spiders" invading a town in India...
Photoshop this woman at the wheel
New book is full of girls in their bedrooms, will be read by people who need to have a seat right...