Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, the Sunni speaker of the Iraqi parliament said, “We know there was a corrupt regime in Saddam, but a regime should be removed by surgery, not by butchering. The U.S. occupation is butcher’s work under the slogan of democracy and human rights and justice. Leave us to solve our problems. We don’t need an agenda from outside.”

Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-Minn.) was a strong supporter of Bush’s war. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that after returning from Iraq recently, he said, “Essentially, what the White House is saying is, ‘Stay the course, stay the course.’ I don’t think that course is politically sustainable.”

The Chronicle reports Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) said this about Bush stubborn “stay-the-course policy. “It’s like after Katrina, when the secretary of Homeland Security was saying all those people weren’t really stranded when we were all watching it on TV. I still hear about that. We can’t look like we won’t face reality.”

The United Nations reports that 2,669 civilians were killed in May and 3,149 were killed in June. In the first half of 2006, 14,338 people have been killed. The Associated Press reports that the rate of killing in Iraq has reached100 people per day.

With the mess in Iraq continuing, Republicans are fleeing from Bush at an unprecedented rate. AP reports “Freshman Sen. John Thune, the Republican hero two years ago for ousting the Senate Democratic leader, said Wednesday that if he were running this year, he’d distance himself from President Bush and his agenda.”

Money has always been a Republican advantage. In this year’s Senate races, the National Republican Senatorial Committee headed by Sen. Dole (R-S.C.) has $19.9 million on hand this week. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee headed by Charles Shumer (D-N.Y.) has $37.7 million on hand.