Craig Crawford's Trail Mix

When a senator goes public with advice for a president, it usually means that the president must not be listening. Sen. John Warner’s very public suggestion yesterday that George W. Bush should withdraw a small contingent of troops from Iraq — to signal that the U.S. involvement is not open-ended — came across as the move of a frustrated lawmaker who does not have the president’s ear.

Indeed, Bush did not meet with or talk to the Virginia Republican after Warner returned from Iraq this week and briefed the president’s aides at the White House.

This is not the first time that Warner — a former Navy secretary who formerly chaired the Senate Armed Services Committee and now is its ranking Republican — has followed private sessions with the administration by publicly detailing advice that officials had apparently ignored.

Be assured that if Warner was really getting anywhere with Bush, he would not be holding press conferences and giving television interviews to describe what he is telling the White House.