Republican senators challenge Bush’s Iraq optimism: “‘Too often we’ve been told and the American people have been told that we’re at a turning point,’ Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.’ ‘What the American people should have been told and should be told … (is that) it’s long; it’s hard; it’s tough.’ ‘It’s going to be at least a couple more years,’ said McCain, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, was quoted by U.S. News and World Report as saying the administration’s Iraq policy was failing. ‘Things aren’t getting better; they’re getting worse. The White House is completely disconnected from reality,’ said Hagel, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee. ‘It’s like they’re just making it up as they go along. The reality is that we’re losing in Iraq.'” (Reuters)