FACTBOX: Key Republicans to challenge Bush on Iraq
(Reuters) - President George W. Bush has no plans to withdraw troops from Iraq now, the White House said on Monday, despite increasing pressure from members of his own Republican party for a change in war strategy.
Following are some key Republicans challenging Bush on Iraq.
* SEN. GORDON SMITH: Smith joined critics of the war in late 2006. Delivering one of the harsher criticisms of the war, Smith of Oregon said on the Senate floor in December that the war might even be "criminal."
* SEN. CHUCK HAGEL: Hagel has been a harsh critic of Bush's handling of the war and co-sponsored a non-binding resolution condemning his proposal to send more troops to Iraq. The Nebraska senator called the buildup "the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam" and said Bush was playing "a ping pong game with American lives." Hagel's comments drew a rebuke in January from Vice President Dick Cheney.
* SEN. RICHARD LUGAR: Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declared in June that Bush's strategy was not working and troops should start leaving. In a Senate floor speech, the Indiana senator said the United States should draw down its troops in Iraq and redeploy some of them in the region before it was too late to do so politically -- before the U.S. 2008 presidential campaign gets into full swing and partisan confrontation limits options.
* SEN. GEORGE VOINOVICH: In June, Voinovich of Ohio sent Bush a letter "expressing his belief that our nation must begin to develop a comprehensive plan for our gradual military disengagement from Iraq." As with Lugar, Voinovich is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
* SEN. PETE DOMENICI: A day after Bush appealed to Americans to be more patient with the unpopular war, the six-term New Mexico senator, who is up for re-election next year, urged a new course. "I am unwilling to continue our current strategy," Domenici, who serves on the Senate's defense appropriations subcommittee, said in a statement on July 5.
