http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20040422/ts_latimes/lugarhaslittlesayoveruspoliciesoniraq&cid=2026&ncid=1480<snip>
It was Lugar, after all, who pressured President Reagan to shift gears and back Corazon Aquino as the newly elected head of the Philippines in 1986. And five years later, it was Lugar who defied GOP conservatives and played a key role in giving the former Soviet Union hundreds of millions of dollars to safeguard its nuclear weapons.
Now, however, as Iraq (news - web sites) teeters on the brink of chaos and U.S. casualties soar, Lugar has played no significant role in one of the most critical foreign policy issues of his career. The Bush administration has openly ignored him. And, to the disappointment of admirers in both parties, Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has held back from forcing the issue.
In part, Lugar's isolation is symptomatic of how little Congress is being consulted by the administration. It also reflects the extent to which political polarization now casts its shadow over policy debates in Washington. And in part, Lugar's lack of impact on Iraq policy may reflect his own decisions about how cautious to be in expressing his concerns.
To be sure, Indiana's senior senator is one of only a handful of congressional Republicans willing to express even the slightest concern about President Bush (news - web sites)'s policies in Iraq. In recent weeks, he suggested that more troops were needed, pointedly asked who would rule in Baghdad's planned new government, and questioned whether Bush's June 30 deadline for turning over power is realistic