On the Thursday morning of President Bush’s visit to Des Moines to support the campaign of Republican Jeff Lamberti, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said the president’s shift in tone on the war in Iraq is not a part of Republican strategy for the election in just under two weeks.

Grassley said Bush’s recent mention of “benchmarks” and “timetables” for withdrawal were to show Americans the strategy in Iraq has been ever-changing – despite the president’s previous near-constant dismissals of what he termed “artificial timetables.”

“It happens that since July, with the insurgency going up, people have had some doubt whether we were always adjusting our strategy to meet the daily demands of war and to use our troops in the most efficient way,” Grassley said. “And with the president meeting with the general and the [Iraqi] ambassador, it brings attention to it.”

Grassley criticized The New York Times, which said Thursday that Bush’s change in rhetoric was to “rescue Republican candidates.”

“It seems to me the Times is against anything he [Bush] tries to do, and their cynical attitude is really a whole effort to appease terrorists,” the senator said.

Grassley said recent revelations of Rep. Mark Foley’s, R-Fla., explicit e-mail and instant messages to underage congressional pages obviously hasn’t helped Iowans’ perceptions of the Republican Party, but the effect of the scandal is diminishing.

The aftermath of the scandal and how it sways voters before the Nov. 7 midterm elections is “less today, and less in Iowa, than a month ago,” Grassley said. “But I think people are beginning to look at the fact that the stakes are high in this election. They’re looking at the fact there’s a real choice in this election.”