Washington ? There are at least two ways to look at Rep. Mark Kirk’s trip to the White House this week to voice his Iraq war frustrations directly to President Bush.

Perhaps Kirk, a naval intelligence officer from the North Shore who still pulls reserve duty a weekend a month at the Pentagon, was simply voicing a military officer’s concern over a war strategy he believes has veered off course.

Or perhaps he, among a handful of other moderate Republicans clinging to seats in swing districts, was looking for help in preventing a difficult war from killing off his congressional career.

Since Kirk isn’t talking publicly, others are left to comment. And while opinions vary, one thing seems clear: The problems plaguing Kirk embody the anxiety of a growing number of Republicans nationwide.

“It’s a worry for everybody,” said Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., who represents a Chicago suburban district similar to Kirk’s but one that is more reliably Republican. In 2006, she said, “the issue was the war. The issue now is the war. I don’t think it’s just for moderates; it’s for all members of Congress. The American people are weary and they’re impatient with the war.”

Kirk declined all interviews this week. But he is showing signs of worry, both for the war strategy and his career.

On Tuesday, Kirk led a group of 11 moderate House Republicans to the White House. Other participants described the meeting as a “frank” warning to Bush that if conditions don’t improve in Iraq by the fall, GOP congressmen could desert him on the war – or risk losing even more seats to the new Democratic majority.

Kirk voted Thursday against another bill, which failed, that would have started a troop pullout, as well as against a bill, which passed, that would fund the war through July before asking Bush to show progress.

Democrats pounced. The chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., called Kirk’s actions “an albatross.”

“What the voters are going to wonder,” Van Hollen said, “is why what he said to Bush at the White House – whatever it was – was not matched by his vote.”

Republicans say the war might not factor as much as Democrats presume – or that Kirk can survive regardless.

“November of next year is a lifetime away” – and war strategy could shift drastically by then – said Jerome Clarke, chief of staff for Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Ill., and a veteran of Illinois politics.

The chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., predicted that 2008 can’t possibly be worse nationally for the GOP or for Kirk, whom he calls “an exceptional member,” and that the war will vie for stump time with tax cuts and national security.