With Roles Reversed, GOP Sees Repeat Of 1995 Shutdown Fiasco

Senate Republicans are blasting Democrats for refusing to meet with President Bush on war spending, believing that the Democrats are going down the same dangerous path the GOP walked in 1995 when it refused to meet with then President Bill Clinton during the budget clash that led to a government shutdown.

"This is the same play," said a senior GOP leadership aide. "In 1995, Clinton invited us to come down to the White House to discuss the budget and we refused and we got clobbered. We see that happening all over again."

Democrats originally rejected the president's invitation because it appeared he was unwilling to negotiate a deal on the war supplemental bill that includes a timeline for withdrawal.

Then, today, House and Senate leaders indicated they might meet with Bush to confront him over the troop "surge."

The GOP attack suggests that the Democrats are playing games with spending for the troops, and that they are more willing to meet with the leaders of terrorist governments in Iran and Syria than the president.

Ryan Loskarn, spokesman for the Senate Republican Conference, said, "The question that needs to be asked is why Speaker Pelosi has time to meet with the president of Syria, yet no time to meet with the president of the United States." The conference put out a fact sheet that cites demands from the military for funding and suggestions from lawmakers about meeting with Iranian leaders.

By Paul Bedard