Back on Capitol Hill, Bremer Is Facing a Cooler Reception

Republicans to Join Democrats in Criticizing Decisions in Iraq

The last time L. Paul Bremer testified before Congress, he was lauded as an American hero. Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.) congratulated Bremer, who was leading the U.S. occupation authority in Iraq, for a "tremendous success." Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) commended his "energy and focus." Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) praised his "brilliant analysis."

When Bremer returns to Capitol Hill today to appear before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, he will receive a far less effusive reception than he did in September 2003. The now-ruling Democrats plan to pounce on him for disbanding Iraq's army, firing many members of the Baath Party, hiring GOP loyalists and not fully accounting for the spending of billions of dollars in Iraqi oil revenue.

Fellow Republicans have pointed questions for the first time in public as well.

"Had Bremer made better decisions, we would be in a very different place today," said Rep. Christopher Shays (Conn.).

"Some of the key mistakes in Iraq occurred on his watch," said Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.). "I think there will be a tendency among Republicans to look very carefully and say, 'Who is this man . . . who made decisions that we're still paying for today?' "

Two and a half years after he left Baghdad, the steel-haired viceroy who wore combat boots with his navy-blue suits has emerged as an embodiment of reconstruction policy gone awry. The Senate began debate yesterday on a resolution condemning President Bush's troop buildup, and House members will have their sights on Bremer this week as they seek to assign blame for U.S. mistakes in rebuilding Iraq.

While deep divisions remain about Bush's decision to send more troops to Iraq, there is near-unanimity among Democrats and Republicans that the United States needs to roll back key political and economic decisions that Bremer's Coalition Provisional Authority made.

Bremer has become something of a bipartisan-consensus candidate among those looking for officials to hold responsible for what has occurred in Iraq, eliciting that sort of opprobrium once reserved for Donald H. Rumsfeld, who as defense secretary was a chief architect of the war. For Democrats, Bremer is a particularly juicy target because he, along with retired Gen. Tommy R. Franks and former CIA director George J. Tenet, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Bush, who would shower Bremer with praise on his visits to Washington.

For many Republicans, who believe they must acknowledge mistakes if they want to increase public support for continued U.S. military involvement in Iraq, defending Bremer may be too much to ask. Even senior Bush administration officials who were once effusive in their descriptions of Bremer privately point to some of his decisions as key errors.

"With some of the major issues we're dealing with today, the roots of the problem go back to the days when Iraq was under Bremer's control," said Shays.

Some who worked for Bremer in Baghdad contend that he is a scapegoat for Bush administration decisions that were out of his control.

Bremer, they note, raised concerns about the number of troops in Iraq with Bush in the summer of 2003. And, they point out, Bremer wanted to capture Moqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite cleric and militia leader, in the fall of 2003, when he had far fewer supporters and the backlash would have been much smaller, but U.S. military commanders refused to act on the request.