The Note: A House Divided

May 10, 2007— -- This wasn't what Karl Rove's permanent majority was supposed to look like. Even as Vice President Cheney was being dispatched to Baghdad to prod the Iraqi government and shore up public support for the war, President Bush was being bluntly told by Republican moderates that Iraq is a looming political disaster for the GOP. Meanwhile, in the 2008 presidential race, the abortion issue is splintering the party, leaving two of the top three Republican candidates scrambling to explain themselves.

It may be healthy for the GOP to work through its internal divisions now, 18 months before Election Day. But it sure isn't pretty. Tuesday's White House meeting -- charitably described by participants as "candid," "frank," and "open" -- speaks to the party's most immediate challenge: holding fast behind an unpopular war. But the president's vow to veto another Democratic war-funding bill was lost in this news cycle, subsumed by a meeting with 11 House members that represented "perhaps the clearest sign yet that patience in the party is running out," The Washington Post's Shailagh Murray and Jonathan Weisman write. Said Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.): "People are always saying President Bush is in a bubble. Well, this was our chance, and we took it." LINK

On the 2008 front, as former governor Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) faces new questions about his abortion record stemming from his wife's 1994 donation to Planned Parenthood, former mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R-N.Y.) is dropping any equivocation over his support for abortion rights. Per The New York Times' Adam Nagourney and Marc Santora, Giuliani hopes to pull off something that defies conventional political wisdom: win the Republican nomination as a proud pro-choicer. Aside from offering a "forthright affirmation" for his abortion views in speeches and interviews, he is hoping to take advantage of the scrambled primary calendar to focus on big states -- California, New York, New Jersey -- that are "likely to be more receptive to Mr. Giuliani's social views than voters in Iowa and South Carolina." This should make next week's GOP debate in South Carolina interesting. LINK