Posted on Mon, Sep. 04, 2006

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ELECTION 2006

South backing war, for now

While most of S.C. delegation supports action, some voice differing views

By WAYNE WASHINGTON

wwashington@thestate.com

Frustration over carnage and chaos in Iraq has been a defining issue for voters from Connecticut to New Mexico — but the war has not been the focal point of campaigns in South Carolina.

So far, the war, which claimed three South Carolinians last month, has not threatened incumbents here who support it nor has it given life to challengers.

The state’s congressional delegation, most of whom voted to give President Bush the authority to use force in Iraq, has largely stayed behind the administration, though a few have raised questions about tactics.

That’s no surprise to political experts, who noted that no S.C. incumbent here has suffered the fate of U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn. He is running for re-election as an independent after an anti-war candidate pounded him for his support of the war and, eventually, defeated him in the Democratic primary.

“The South is different,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “It is the most pro-military region in the country. That tends to dampen anti-war sentiment.”

Opinion polls show frustration with the war has pulled President Bush’s job approval ratings down into the mid-30-percent range at times. Along with economic and spending concerns, war concerns have threatened Republican prospects for maintaining control of Congress.

The war also is proving unpopular in South Carolina. A Rasmussen Reports poll released last month found only 46 percent of South Carolinians approve of the job Bush is doing as president while 53 percent disapprove.

Trying to stem that tide, Bush last week began a series of trips to make his case for the war in Iraq. He offered a more refined version of what has been a mantra from supporters: Opponents don’t appreciate the scope of the conflict and want to cut and run.

“America is a patient nation,” Bush told an audience at the American Legion convention in Salt Lake City, Utah. “Iraq can count on our partnership, as long as the new government continues to make the hard decisions necessary to advance a unified, democratic and peaceful Iraq.”

DIFFERING VIEWS

Even in South Carolina, where a large majority of voters backed Bush in his White House bids, not all Republicans have as much patience on Iraq.

U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C., returned on Aug. 25 from a 10-day trip to the Middle East that included a stop in Iraq.

Inglis, of Travelers Rest in Greenville County, said patience is just what the United States should not be showing to Iraqi leaders.

“We need to be impatient in saying (to Iraqis), ‘We need to make more progress,’” Inglis said. “‘You can’t count on us being here forever.’”

Democrats opposing S.C. Republican incumbents have made the war a part of their political strategy. But what they say, and how much they say it, varies, just as Republican support for the war varies from the total support of U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., to Inglis’ more qualified backing.

Ed Patru, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said the GOP does not expect candidates to hew to a pro-Bush administration stance.

“We expect and encourage every candidate to take a position that they believe in and that resonates with voters in their district,” Patru said.

“We have never taken a position that the candidates need to toe the party line on issues where they feel strongly, even if they aren’t the same positions of the leadership or the White House. That’s just smart politics.”

Sabato agreed, pointing to President Lyndon Johnson’s insistence that fellow Democrats support his policies in Vietnam.

“Johnson would get very angry whenever members of his party spoke out against the war,” Sabato said. ‘That was certainly a self-defeating policy.”

Johnson’s vice president, Hubert Humphrey, was reluctant to step away from the administration’s policy on the war, and many political observers believe his delay in doing so is one of the reasons he was defeated by Republican Richard Nixon in the 1968 presidential election.

Polls show rising concerns over the Iraq war.

A CBS News/New York Times poll conducted in September 2003 found 47 percent of respondents disapproved of the president’s handling of the war. Those figures have climbed steadily, to 54 percent in October 2004, to 57 percent in August 2005, and to 65 percent last month.

As that disapproval has risen, Bush’s overall job approval ratings have plunged.

The CBS News/New York Times poll taken last month found 36 percent of respondents approved of the job Bush is doing as president.

A BROAD APPROACH

Bush has fared poorly in states such as Ohio, where communities have had to cope with multiple war-related casualties at the same time.

Forty-two members of the U.S. military with S.C. ties have died in the Iraq war. While not as wide as Ohio’s painful experience, the military deaths have caused significant anguish, said Blease Graham, a political science professor at the University of South Carolina.

“It’s a tragedy when anybody’s killed, but it’s scattered enough and isolated enough that it can be dealt with,” Graham said. “It’s not 15 a month from one place. It’s one from Moncks Corner one week and one from Greenville the next.”

Still, the president’s weakened standing has factored into Democratic calculations.

In the 1st District, which includes coastal communities from Charleston to Horry County, Democrat Randy Maatta is trying to pin incumbent U.S. Rep. Henry Brown,R-S.C., to the president.

Brown voted to give Bush the authority to use force in Iraq, and Maatta said voters frequently tell him how unhappy they are with the war.

But Maatta, who said he likely would have voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq, has taken a broader approach in his campaign, hitting his opponent on issues like East Coast oil drilling, government spending and Social Security.

Graham said Maatta is wise to avoid a campaign centered on opposition to the war.

“The South generally has a traditionalistic society and along with that goes a protective attitude of the homeland,” Graham said. “South Carolinians fall into support of military action as they did during the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.

“Not everybody goes along with that, but most do.”

There are other, more practical challenges to mounting a campaign based on opposition to military conflict, Graham said.

“The military is a big investment in this state,” he said. “It’s a part of the state’s economic development.”

Reach Senior Writer Wayne Washington at (803) 771-8385.