Vukovich passes away at 59

03/08/2007 10:31 AM ET
Vukovich passes away at 59
Coach, who was a part of Phillies for 31 years, dies from cancer
By Ken Mandel / MLB.com

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- There are many funny, sad and heartwarming stories about John Vukovich, as there should be for a man who touched so many lives.

A person who spends 41 years in baseball, on back fields, dugouts, buses, airplanes, restaurants and hotel rooms, is bound to earn tremendous respect and pick up a lifelong friends along the way.

That's what happened with "Vuk," who lost a second battle with cancer and passed away on Thursday at age 59.

"He was a Californian who married a Philly girl and never left," said broadcaster Chris Wheeler, who joined the organization in 1971 and considered Vukovich among his closest friends. "He loved Philadelphia because he kept saying these people are tough. He loved the area for that reason."

Vukovich, a former Phillies player and coach whose ties with the club dated to 1970, when he debuted as a Major Leaguer, was tough, too.

Diagnosed with a brain tumor in May 2001, he appeared to have recovered, proudly returning to the coaching box within two months. After more than five years of relatively good health, doctors discovered that the illness had returned after Vukovich experienced headaches and impaired vision.

In true style, Vukovich kept the news private from even his closest friends, saying everything was going to be fine. Word filtered out when he missed the Winter Meetings in Orlando in December. The family asked for and was granted privacy.

Despite recent optimism, news circulated on Wednesday within the organization that his condition had worsened, and none could hide their extreme sense of loss.

"He was a second father to me," said Greg Casterioto, the Phillies' manager of public relations, likely echoing the sentiments of his generation.

"He was like a brother to me," Wheeler said, echoing the sentiments of his generation.
A passionate man who always listed family first and baseball second (a really close second), Vukovich honed the fielding of a generation of infielders and wasn't afraid to tell players how they should wear the uniform.

The term often heard was "old school."

A fixture in the organization, Vukovich spent 31 of his 41 years in the sport wearing red pinstripes. The most important were the 17 straight -- from 1988-2004 -- that he spent as a Phillies coach, working with six different managers and showing extreme loyalty to each. Vukovich will be remembered this season with a black patch sewn onto Phillies uniforms.

In 2004, he passed former bullpen coach Mike Ryan to become the longest tenured coach in team history. A career .161 hitter over parts of 10 seasons in the Major Leagues, Vukovich often joked that his "second career was much better than the first."

Though the statistics won't lie about the first, Vukovich was the embodiment of a player who survived on sterling defense, personality and heart. He knew so much about the game and how it should be played.

"It would be the greatest second career for a .161 hitter," Wheeler said. "He was a great baseball man. He was a throwback. He felt there was a way to play and wear the uniform and didn't bend."

A third baseman selected by Philadelphia in the January 1966 draft out of American River Junior College in Sacramento, Calif., Vukovich received a $10,000 bonus when he signed hours before the deadline that would've thrown him back into the pool of eligible draftees. That summer, he tooled around his sleepy hometown in a sleek new Dodge Coronet 500, his one indulgence.

"I paid $3,400 cash for it," he later said. "My dad got a new truck."

In the Minors, Vukovich tasted winning as a member of three league champions: Spartanburg, 1967; Eugene, 1972; and Oklahoma City, 1970. He led his league in fielding by a third baseman four times. With Triple-A Eugene in 1970, he reached professional highs with 22 homers and 96 RBIs in 138 games.

He made his debut in 1970 and played parts of seven seasons with the Phillies, including the 1980 World Series championship team. He was also a member of the 1975 Reds, who won the World Series that season, and often recalled a story of how he was once pinch-hit for by manager Sparky Anderson in the first inning.

"He loved that story," Casterioto said.

On June 23, 1971, Vukovich played third base and caught the final out of Rick Wise's no-hitter.
He made a seamless transition to coaching after retiring as a player in 1981, beginning with the Cubs in 1982 and serving as a first base, third base and bench coach until leaving after the 1987 season.

While his departure created an opportunity in Philadelphia, the story of why he left is a testament to his loyalty. In fall of 1987, then-Cubs GM Dallas Green, whom Vuk had followed to Chicago, was preparing to name himself manager/GM and wanted Vukovich as his bench coach, with the intention of making Vuk the manager the following season.

Except that a funny thing happened.

"I flew into Chicago at 9 that morning and Dallas told me I was going to manage," Vukovich recalled. "I went to Tribune Tower and met with [CEO] John Madigan. Then we went back to Wrigley Field for a 5 o'clock press conference."

Less than five minutes later, Vukovich was unemployed.

"Dallas called me in and said, 'I resigned,'" Vukovich said. "He wanted me to stay and I said, 'Like hell I will.' I listened to the press conference [of Green's resignation] on the radio going to the airport."

Vukovich flew back to his home in Voorhees, N.J., and eventually landed again in Philadelphia. His coaching role with the Phillies included first base, third base and bench coach, plus coordinating Spring Training and working with the team's infielders. Vukovich got to manage the final nine games of the 1988 season, when Lee Elia was dismissed, and he went 5-4. In 1994, he was a coach for the National League All-Star team.

In 2000, he served as a coach for the MLB All-Star team that traveled to Japan, and in 2004, he was named the winner of the inaugural Dallas Green Special Achievement Award, presented by the Philadelphia chapter of The Baseball Writers Association of America for his coaching tenure.

Vukovich left the field after the 2004 season and became a special assistant to the general manager, working under Ed Wade and Pat Gillick. He and Larry Bowa are the only two men to wear a Phillies uniform at Connie Mack Stadium, Veterans Stadium and Citizens Bank Park.

He is survived by his wife, the former Bonnie Loughran, whom he met at Veterans Stadium; two children, Nicole Stolarick and Vince, and triplet granddaughters, Anna, Lena and Stella Stolarick. Vukovich is also survived by two brothers, Rich and Bill, of California.

Ken Mandel is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Jackson to Host Pre- and Post-Game Shows

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Jackson to Host Pre- and Post-Game ShowsComcastSportsNet.comThe Phillies announced that Flyers' play-by-play man Jim Jackson has joined the broadcast team as the host of the pre- and post-game radio shows, the baseball club announced on Tuesday. Jackson will take over the role handled by Scott Franzke last season, so that the second-year Phillies’ broadcaster can work exclusively as a play-by-play announcer.“We are pleased to have a broadcaster of Jim’s caliber in our mix,” said Rob Brooks, the Phillies broadcasting manager. “He brings a lot of experience with him, and a passion for baseball that not too many people were aware of.”A 20-year veteran of hockey, including the last 14 seasons with the Flyers, Jackson has plenty of baseball experience. He did radio play-by-play for the Utica Blue Sox of the New York-Penn League from 1986 to 1993, spent the summer of 2005 broadcasting the Trenton Thunder of the Eastern League, and was the television voice of the Cal Ripken World Series on OLN in August 2006.The job with the Phillies will be Jackson’s first foray into Major League Baseball.But fear not Flyers' fans, Jackson is not giving up hockey. He’ll be working with the Flyers for the foreseeable future.

The Doors Get Star on Walk of Fame

The Doors Get Star on Walk of Fame

By Associated Press

Wed Feb 28, 8:39 PM

LOS ANGELES - Forty years ago, the Doors' Jim Morrison seduced Hollywood with his wild moves and wilder poetry. On Wednesday, the rock band cemented its legendary status with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Doors' keyboardist Ray Manzarek, 68, and guitarist Robby Krieger, 61, showed up minus drummer John Densmore for the dedication of the walk's 2,325th star.

"Jim always used to say: The West is the best!" Krieger said. "It has been an incredible 40 years, and now I'm back with Ray and we're still playing, and you know, it may never end."

The band, whose dark sound helped to define the `60s, is known for such hits as "Light My Fire" and "L.A. Woman."

"It is a great honor to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame ... a street that Jim Morrison, Robby Krieger and I traipsed up and down, going into bars, asking if they'd hire a rock band," Densmore said in a statement read by Morrison's nephew, Dylan Graham.

Densmore, 62, said he was unable to make the ceremony because of an interview commitment to a local radio station.

The hard-living Morrison died at age 27 in 1971 and the Doors dissolved a few years later.

The surviving members have sparred legally over the of the group's name.

In 2005, a judge issued a permanent injunction barring Krieger and Manzarek from calling themselves the Doors and using any likeness of Morrison to promote a renewed version of the band.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

President Bush's Crawford TX Home is Model of Environmentally Friendly Living

Source: http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=0510480a-802a-23ad-401c-e362782ce790

February 27, 2007

Posted by Marc Morano Marc_Morano@EPW.Senate.Gov - February 27, 2007 4:21 pm ET

Former Vice President Al Gore has been criticized for his rather large electric bills ($30,000 a year) at his home in Tennessee. (Link) What you might not have heard about is how environmentally friendly President George Bush's home is in Crawford Texas. Below is a partial reprint from the Chicago Tribune from April 29, 2001.

Chicago Tribune
Bush loves ecology --at home
April 29, 2001
By Rob Sullivan. Rob Sullivan is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles

The 4,000-square-foot house is a model of environmental rectitude.

Geothermal heat pumps located in a central closet circulate water through pipes buried 300 feet deep in the ground where the temperature is a constant 67 degrees; the water heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer. Systems such as the one in this "eco-friendly" dwelling use about 25% of the electricity that traditional heating and cooling systems utilize.

A 25,000-gallon underground cistern collects rainwater gathered from roof runs; wastewater from sinks, toilets and showers goes into underground purifying tanks and is also funneled into the cistern. The water from the cistern is used to irrigate the landscaping surrounding the four-bedroom home. Plants and flowers native to the high prairie area blend the structure into the surrounding ecosystem.

No, this is not the home of some eccentrically wealthy eco-freak trying to shame his fellow citizens into following the pristineness of his self-righteous example. And no, it is not the wilderness retreat of the Sierra Club or the Natural Resources Defense Council, a haven where tree-huggers plot political strategy.

This is President George W. Bush's "Texas White House" outside the small town of Crawford

[EPW Note: The President’s House in Crawford was designed to be eco-friendly.]

According to David Heymann, the house's architect and associate dean of the University of Texas architecture department, Heymann designed the house so that "every room has a relationship with something in the landscape that's different from the room next door. Each of the rooms feels like a slightly different place."

In a USA Today interview, Heymann said, "There's a great grove of oak trees to the west that protects it from the late afternoon sun. Then there is a view out to the north looking at hills, and to the east out over a lake, and the view to the south . . . out to beautiful hills."

[EPW Note: I wonder if the news media will report on the President’s green way of life.]

Slavery ties Sharpton to Thurmond

Slavery ties Sharpton to Thurmond


By ADAM GOLDMAN, Associated Press WriterSun Feb 25, 5:34 PM ET
The Rev. Al Sharpton is a descendant of a slave owned by relatives of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond — a discovery the civil rights activist called "shocking" on Sunday.
Sharpton learned of his connection to Thurmond, once a prominent defender of segregation, last week through the Daily News, which asked genealogists to trace his roots.
"It was probably the most shocking thing in my life," Sharpton said at a news conference Sunday, the same day the tabloid revealed the story.
Some of Thurmond's relatives said the nexus also came as a surprise to them. Doris Strom Costner, a distant cousin who said she knew the late senator all her life, said Sunday she "never heard of such a thing."
"My momma never would talk to me about nothing like that," Costner said of ancestors who owned slaves. "She only talked to me about good things."
The revelations surfaced after Ancestry.com contacted a Daily News reporter who agreed to have his own family tree done. The intrigued reporter then turned around and asked Sharpton if he wanted to participate. Sharpton said he told the paper, "Go for it."
The genealogists, who were not paid by the newspaper, uncovered the ancestral ties using a variety of documents that included census, marriage and death records.
They found that Sharpton's great-grandfather, Coleman Sharpton, was a slave owned by Julia Thurmond, whose grandfather was Strom Thurmond's great-great-grandfather. Coleman Sharpton was later freed.
Thurmond, of South Carolina, was once considered an icon of racial segregation. During his 1948 bid for president, he promised to preserve segregation and, in 1957, he filibustered for more than 24 hours against a civil rights bill.
Sharpton, who ran for president in 2004 on a ticket of racial justice, said he met Thurmond only once in 1991 when he visited Washington, D.C., with the late soul singer James Brown, who knew Thurmond. Sharpton said the meeting was "awkward."
"I was not happy to meet him because what he had done all his life," Sharpton said.
Thurmond was seen as softening his segregation stance later in his life. He died in 2003, at 100. The long-serving senator was originally a Democrat but became a Republican in 1964.
Thurmond's children have acknowledged that Thurmond fathered a biracial daughter. Essie Mae Washington-Williams' mother was a housekeeper in the home of Thurmond's parents.
Telephone message left by The Associated Press on Sunday for Strom Thurmond Jr. and an attorney who once represented Thurmond's biracial daughter, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, were not returned.
___
Associated Press writer Page Ivey in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Bill's Comment: Small world, isn't it?

Welfare state growing despite overhauls

Welfare state growing despite overhauls


By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer2 hours, 15 minutes ago
The welfare state is bigger than ever despite a decade of policies designed to wean poor people from public aid.
The number of families receiving cash benefits from welfare has plummeted since the government imposed time limits on the payments a decade ago. But other programs for the poor, including Medicaid, food stamps and disability benefits, are bursting with new enrollees.
The result, according to an Associated Press analysis: Nearly one in six people rely on some form of public assistance, a larger share than at any time since the government started measuring two decades ago.
Critics of the welfare overhaul say the numbers offer fresh evidence that few former recipients have become self-sufficient, even though millions have moved from welfare to work. They say the vast majority have been forced into low-paying jobs without benefits and few opportunities to advance.
"If the goal of welfare reform was to get people off the welfare rolls, bravo," said Vivyan Adair, a former welfare recipient who is now an assistant professor of women's studies at Hamilton College in upstate New York. "If the goal was to reduce poverty and give people economic and job stability, it was not a success."
Proponents of the changes in welfare say programs that once discouraged work now offer support to people in low-paying jobs. They point to expanded eligibility rules for food stamps and Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor, that enable people to keep getting benefits even after they start working.
"I don't have any problems with those programs growing, and indeed, they were intended to grow," said Ron Haskins, a former adviser to President Bush on welfare policy.
"We've taken the step of getting way more people into the labor force and they have taken a huge step toward self-sufficiency. What is the other choice?" he asked.
In the early 1990s, critics contended the welfare system encouraged unemployment and promoted single-parent families. Welfare recipients, mostly single mothers, could lose benefits if they earned too much money or if they lived with the father of their children.
Major changes in welfare were enacted in 1996, requiring most recipients to work but allowing them to continue some benefits after they started jobs. The law imposed a five-year limit on cash payments for most people in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, or TANF. Some states have shorter time limits.
Nia Foster fits the pattern of dependence on government programs. She stopped getting cash welfare payments in the late 1990s and has moved from one clerical job to another. None provided medical benefits.
The 32-year-old mother of two from Cincinnati said she supports her family with help from food stamps and Medicaid.
Foster said she did not get any job training when she left welfare. She earned her high-school equivalency last year at a community college.
"If you want to get educated or want to succeed, the welfare office don't care," Foster said. "I don't think they really care what you do once the benefits are gone."
Foster now works in a tax office, a seasonal job that will end after April 15. She hopes to enroll at the University of Cincinnati this spring and would like to study accounting. She is waiting to find out if she qualifies for enough financial aid to cover tuition.
"I like data processing, something where it's a bunch of invoices and you have to key them in," Foster said. "I want to be an accountant so bad."
Shannon Stanfield took a different, less-traveled path from welfare, thanks to a generous program that offered her a chance to get a college education.
Stanfield, 36, was cleaning houses to support her two young children four years ago when she learned about a program for welfare recipients at nearby Hamilton College, a private liberal arts school in Clinton, N.Y.
"At the time I was living in a pretty run-down apartment," said Stanfield, who was getting welfare payments, Medicaid and food stamps. "It wasn't healthy."
The program, called the Access Project, accepts about 25 welfare-eligible parents a year. Hamilton waives tuition for first-year students and the program supplements financial aid in later years. Students get a host of social and career services, including help finding internships and jobs and financial assistance in times of crisis.
About 140 former welfare recipients have completed the program and none still relies on government programs for the poor, said Adair, the Hamilton professor who started the Access Project in 2001.
Stanfield, who still gets Medicaid and food stamps, plans to graduate in May with a bachelor's degree in theater. She wants to be a teacher.
"I slowly built up my confidence through education," Stanfield said. "I can't honestly tell you how much it has changed my life."
Programs such as the Access Project are not cheap, which is one reason they are rare. Tuition and fees run about $35,000 a year at Hamilton, and the program's annual budget is between $250,000 and $500,000, Adair said.
In 2005, about 5.1 million people received monthly welfare payments from TANF and similar state programs, a 60 percent drop from a decade before.
But other government programs grew, offsetting the declines.
About 44 million people — nearly one in six in the country — relied on government services for the poor in 2003, according to the most recent statistics compiled by the Census Bureau. That compares with about 39 million in 1996.
Also, the number of people getting government aid continues to increase, according to more recent enrollment figures from individual programs.
Medicaid rolls alone topped 45 million people in 2005, pushed up in part by rising health care costs and fewer employers offering benefits. Nearly 26 million people a month received food stamps that year.
Cash welfare recipients, by comparison, peaked at 14.2 million people in 1994.
There is much debate over whether those leaving welfare for work should be offered more opportunities for training and education, so they do not have to settle for low-paying jobs that keep them dependent on government programs.
"We said get a job, any job," said Rep. Jim McDermott (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees welfare issues. "And now we expect them to be making it on these minimum-wage jobs."
McDermott, D-Wash., said stricter work requirements enacted last year, when Congress renewed the welfare overhaul law, will make it even more difficult for welfare recipients to get sufficient training to land good-paying jobs.
But people who support the welfare changes say former recipients often fare better economically if they start working, even in low-paying jobs, before entering education programs.
"What many people on TANF need first is the confidence that they can succeed in the workplace and to develop the habits of work," said Wade Horn, the Bush administration's point man on welfare overhaul.
"Also, many TANF recipients didn't have a lot of success in the classroom," Horn said. "If you want to improve the confidence of a TANF recipient, putting them in the classroom, where they failed in the past, that is not likely to increase their confidence."
Horn noted that employment among poor single mothers is up and child poverty rates are down since the welfare changes in 1996, though the numbers have worsened since the start of the decade.
Horn, however, said he would like to see local welfare agencies provide more education and training to people who have already moved from welfare to work.
"I think more attention has to be paid to helping those families move up the income scale, increasing their independence of other government welfare programs," Horn said.
"The true goal of welfare to work programs should be self-sufficiency."
___
On the Net:
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/acf_services.html walia
Medicaid: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/home/medicaid.asp
Food stamp program: http://www.fns.usda.gov/fsp/
Supplemental Security Income:
http://www.ssa.gov/notices/supplemental-secur
ity-income/
The Access Project: http://www.hamilton.edu/college/access/index.
html
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Bill's Comment: To begin, we can thank former President Lyndon Baines Johnson and his "Great Society". It was this concept in the 1960's that created generations to live off of the taxpayers' dime. Even though Newt Gingrich's "Contract with American" made some strides to create less dependency by revamping the welfare system, there was not enough done to curb the entitlement mentality this country has. If this country ever reverses this train of thought, there may be a glimmer of hope that this country's economic stability would be on a more solid plantation by reducing government waste; thus, less money for the politicians to blow, and more money in your pocket.

Mike Awesome passes away

Mike Awesome passes away

Written: February 19, 2007
WWE is saddened by news of the passing of Mike Alfonso, better known to wrestling fans as Mike Awesome. He was 42.
Mike Awesome's first major exposure came overseas, where he became one of the Japan's top stars. Awesome would eventually become a star and champion in America while wrestling for Extreme Championship Wrestling. Following his successful run in ECW, Awesome spent time working in WCW and later WWE before retiring to his native Tampa, Fla.
While in ECW, Awesome was a two-time World Champion and Tag Team Champion. His matches with Masato Tanaka, including a show-stealer at One Night Stand in 2005 were among the most memorable in ECW history.

Former Rams Lineman Lamar Lundy Dies

Former Rams Lineman Lamar Lundy Dies

By Associated Press
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2 hours ago
RICHMOND, Ind. - Lamar Lundy, a member of the Fearsome Foursome defensive line for the Los Angeles Rams in the 1960s, died Saturday. He was 71. He died after a long illness in his hometown, the Community Family Funeral Home told The Associated Press.
Lundy spent his entire 13-year career with the Rams (1957-69). He teamed with Merlin Olsen and Deacon Jones _ both future Pro Football Hall of Famers _ and Roosevelt Grier to form a mighty defensive line. In 1968, the defense featuring the four set an NFL record for the fewest yards allowed during a 14-game season.
"He was a tremendous performer and a better person," Olsen said in Saturday's Palladium-Item newspaper.
Olsen called Lundy, 6-foot-7 and 250 pounds, the anchor of the line.
"He really was the stabilizing force, Mr. Consistency," Olsen said. "He was an incredibly important part of that equation."
Lundy became the first black scholarship football player at Purdue, the school said. He led Richmond High School to unbeaten football seasons in 1952 and 1953 and to the state's Final Four in basketball in 1953.
Funeral arrangements were not yet announced.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Cheney slams Iraq plan advocated by Dems

Cheney slams Iraq plan advocated by Dems


By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent 9 minutes ago
Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday harshly criticized Democrats' attempts to thwart President Bush's troop buildup in Iraq, saying their approach would "validate the al-Qaida strategy." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) fired back that Cheney was questioning critics' patriotism.
"I hope the president will repudiate and distance himself from the vice president's remarks," Pelosi said. She said she tried to complain about Cheney to President Bush but could not reach him.
"You cannot say as the president of the United States, 'I welcome disagreement in a time of war,' and then have the vice president of the United States go out of the country and mischaracterize a position of the speaker of the House and in a manner that says that person in that position of authority is acting against the national security of our country," the speaker said.
The quarrel began in Tokyo, where Cheney used an interview to criticize Pelosi and Rep. John Murtha (news, bio, voting record), D-Pa., over their plan to place restrictions on Bush's request for an additional $93 billion for the Iraq war to make it difficult or impossible to send 21,500 extra troops to Iraq.
"I think if we were to do what Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha are suggesting, all we will do is validate the al-Qaida strategy," the vice president told ABC News. "The al-Qaida strategy is to break the will of the American people ... try to persuade us to throw in the towel and come home, and then they win because we quit."
In the interview, Cheney also said Britain's plans to withdraw about 1,600 troops from Iraq — while the United States adds more troops — was a positive step. "I look at it and see it is actually an affirmation that there are parts of Iraq where things are going pretty well," the vice president said.
Pelosi, at a news conference in San Francisco, said Cheney's criticism of Democrats was "beneath the dignity of the debate we're engaged in and a disservice to our men and women in uniform, whom we all support."
"And you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to call the president and tell him I disapprove of what the vice president said," Pelosi said. "It has no place in our debate." Bush had previously urged her to call him when a member of his administration stepped over the line by questioning Democrats' patriotism, she said.
Later, Pelosi said she had tried to reach the president but was only able to get through to White House chief of staff Josh Bolten.
Bolten said he was certain no one was questioning her patriotism or commitment to national security, she told reporters.
"I said to him perhaps when he saw what the vice president said he might have another comment," Pelosi said. White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said Cheney "was not questioning anyone's patriotism." But she said Bush and Cheney believe that Pelosi and Murtha's "position to immediately pull out our troops would be harmful to our national security and that it is the wrong strategy to pursue."
As for Cheney's assertion that the partial British pullout is a sign that things are going well in Iraq, Pelosi said: "If it's going so well, we'd like to withdraw our troops as well."
Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee, said Britain's withdrawal, coupled with a Denmark's announcement to pull out its 460 troops by August, "accelerates the breakup of the coalition in Iraq."
He said the United States should reduce its forces "as a way of pressuring the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own future and to reach the political settlements that are essential to end the sectarian violence and defeat the insurgency."
Administration leaders, however, said Britain's decision was good news.
"The British have done what is really the plan for the country as a whole, which is to transfer security responsibility to the Iraqis as the situation permits," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at a news conference in Berlin, where she was in meetings on the Mideast peace process.
National security adviser Stephen Hadley, at NATO headquarters in Brussels, said the decision "reflects the progress that has been made on the ground in Basra and in the south," where British troops were stationed.
"So this is basically a good news story, an indication that progress is being made, and that events on the ground permit this kind of adjustment in forces," Hadley said. Still, he acknowledged the violence in Baghdad and said, "I'm not saying this is an unalloyed picture of progress."
___
Associated Press writer Scott Lindlaw contributed to this report from San Francisco.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Bill's Comment: Another SLAM DUNK for Vice President Cheney. Pelosi and the Democrats simply just don't get it.