Dad's not home. Would you mind talking with his national security adviser. -- Scowcroft says Iraq a failing venture and critical of unilteralism.

During Debate No. 3 Bob Schieffer stated the following as a preface to a "Bush friendly" question to the President about his faith:

"You were asked before the invasion or after the invasion of Iraq if you had checked with your dad."

During the debate the President did not let us know whehter he had talked with his father, the Bush one anyway. We now learn that there's someone close to dad that Bush sure wishes we hadn't heard from.

From the 10-16-04 Washington Post:

Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to President George H.W. Bush, was highly critical of the current president's handling of foreign policy in an interview published this week, saying that the current President Bush is "mesmerized" by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, that Iraq is a "failing venture" and that the administration's unilateralist approach has harmed relations between Europe and the United States.

Scowcroft's remarks, reported in London's Financial Times, are unusual coming from a leading Republican less than three weeks before a highly contested election. In the first Bush administration, Scowcroft was a mentor to Condoleezza Rice, the current national security adviser, and he is regarded as a close associate of the president's father.

Scowcroft's remarks to the Financial Times reflect a sense of unease among some GOP foreign policy experts about the White House's handling of foreign policy -- especially those who, such as Scowcroft, are considered part of what is called the realist wing. Realists, in contrast to those who are called neoconservatives, prefer to deal with other nations on their own terms, whether they are democracies or not, and were skeptical that a war in Iraq would help make democracy blossom throughout the Middle East.