Iraqi Government Benchmarks, Blair Legacy Assessed

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• JIM LEHRER:

  And to the analysis of Shields and Brooks, syndicated columnist Mark Shields, New York Times columnist David Brooks.

  Mark, the saga of Iraq funding legislation continues. President Bush now says he will accept benchmarks. Is that a big deal?

• MARK SHIELDS, Syndicated Columnist:

  It is a big deal, Jim, I mean, in the sense that here we are, in the fifth year of a war. I'm reminded of the great wisdom of the late Arthur Schlesinger, they're all wars that are popular for the first 30 days, and the shelf life of this one is long since past.

  And we're now — apparently, the Congress and the president are going to somehow get together and define what success and failure and victory and defeat are. And it's a commentary in that sense. It is a move on the president's part.

• JIM LEHRER:

  He's never accepted that. And my reading of it was he had never said, "I will accept benchmarks." Am I right about that, David?

• DAVID BROOKS, Columnist, New York Times:

  Well, he's certainly talked about benchmarks. It's the linkage to cutting off funding that I think…

• MARK SHIELDS:

  Right, but now we're going to agree on what benchmarks are. I mean, that's rather remarkable in the fifth year of a war, I mean, to do that.

  I think it is significant of the president. I think it's a reflection. The story this week was not the House Democrats passing what they passed or even what's going to happen in the conference between the House and the Senate on it, eventually before Memorial Day.

  The real story, Jim, is — it sounds like an oxymoron — the revolt of the moderates. I mean, the Republicans…

• JIM LEHRER:

  Yes, we'll get to that in a minute. But I just want to see what you think, David, about how big a shift is this of the president? And is it likely to lead to anything?

• DAVID BROOKS:

  I don't think it's a tremendous shift. It's a shift. It's a desire to show flexibility, but he has talked about the benchmarks. In fact, he's talked about the same benchmarks on the de-Baathification, the oil law, and all that. He just hasn't linked them to cutting off funding.

  And I think the better way to see it is sort of as a climate, an atmospheric pressure building against what Bush is doing. But I think it's a very gradual building, especially on the Republican side. And I think what we're likely to see is — really, until September. I think most Republicans in the House, Senate, have given the president until September. And then, in their mind, that's decision time.

  And then the second thing that is clearly building, I think in the White House and also in the Congress, is a move toward the Baker-Hamilton report. We just saw Lee Hamilton on the last segment, but their report, talking to Iran, doing a lot of that stuff in the region.

  There's much more support in the White House, and there's always been a lot of support on Capitol Hill. And I think there's a move also gradual in that direction, as well.