Missing: GOP Message on Iran

David Weigel — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:03:39 +0000

Here’s a really smart Manu Raju piece on how Republicans, who were completely on message mere weeks ago with anti-Nancy Pelosi and anti-Gitmo closing campaigns, are flummoxed by the Iran revolt. Sen. John Thune (R-Nev.) backs the president’s careful approach, and no Senate Republican is as agitated as Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.):

I’m just thinking of President Reagan — he engaged fully with the Soviet Union to great effect while at the same time describing them as an evil empire, saying they would end up on the ash heap of history. That’s not a bad model.

The “evil empire” and “ash-heap of history” speeches came in 1983 and 1982, respectively, and Reagan famously said that he no longer considered the Soviet Union an “evil empire” after a 1986 meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev. But otherwise it’s the exact same situation.

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Missing: GOP Message on Iran