Letters to the Editor
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Honesty
"This is not a meeting in order to compromise. This is a meeting to discuss the way forward."
Whoa, did Perino mean to be that honest?
And the way forward is "my way or the highway."
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While Tony's out
Dana Perino is showing herself to be truly in over her head in this job. And that's not really a bad thing for the American people, I think...
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Get one thing through your thick skull, Mr. President
"...the president said he wants to talk with congressional leaders so that they can 'report on progress on getting an emergency spending bill to my desk . . .'"
Job #1 for Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi will be to INFORM the Current Occupant that Congress does not "REPORT" to any President. Once they get agreement on that little detail, it may be time for true discussions and negotiation between the co-equal branches of our Federal government.
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Chock Full of Goodies
Wow, Bush's remarks at the American Legion in Fairfax, Virginia are just chock full of goodies:
Today, the men and women at this post visit the wounded in our military hospitals. And I thank you for going to Walter Reed in Bethesda. You know, we're going to make sure that the care is superb care. I went over there the other day and I made it clear to the care-givers that there were some bureaucratic snafus that were unacceptable.
Walter Reed in Bethesda? Well, that explains all of the bureaucratic snafus at Walter Reed. Walter Reed is in DC. The Naval Hospital is in Bethesda. Explains so much...
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How's the press coverage on this?
It really hard for me to get a sense of whether or not the public is still buying the administration's line on this.
The Bush administration says that the Democrats aren't supporting the troops, that the Democrats are undermining the war effort, and that the Democrats won't even meet with him on this. Is the press uncritically repeating these assertions like they did with Speaker Pelosi's trip to Syria?
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Political chicken
The President probably feels he's got the people on his side on this one, and he may be right. People are overwhelmingly against the war, but they won't be crazy about anything that puts the troops in danger, and for the most part they understand that an immediate pullout isn't practical.
That's what the President is going to say at this meeting: "If I veto this bill, you're the ones who are going to look bad."
And presumably Congressional Democratic leaders will tell him that he's wrong on that, and we're up for a game of political chicken. They can't override the veto, so they'll either have to come up with something he won't veto, or send him another bill for him to veto while current funding runs down.
If they run out the clock and the DoD has to cope with an effective cut-off of funds, we'll see who looks worse for that.
My guess is that Congress will blink and the conference committee will use the Senate's non-binding withdrawal, which the President will sign with a statement that he intends to ignore that. But we'll see about that.
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The same guy?
RichEmery, Bush definitely needs a civics lesson. Which the statement below highly ironic:
"Ignorance of American history and civics weakens our sense of citizenship. To be an American is not just a matter of blood or birth; we are bound by ideals, and our children must know those ideals."
-George W. Bush, September 2002, announcing his "History & Civic Education Initiatives"
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/09/20020917-1.html
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"mizbinkley", I obviously agree with you
But let's have some additional fun. Compare the Bush quote you cited with almost anything that comes directly from his brain & mouth -- your quote is a White House release that's actually cogent and sensible, unlike almost anything from Bush that's off-the-cuff or spontaneous.
He obviously never wrote that item, and probably only studied it long enough to spout the words in his typically stilted and sloppy fashion. His speaking skills are so poor that you'd swear English was his second language!
The Current Occupant needs more than just a refresher course in civics. Let's add English composition, logic, and speech to the ever-growing list.
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Harry Reid
It really is fun watching an emoldened Harry Reid slap the White House around.
What is so absolutely stunning is that this White House isn't used to an opposition party. They have no idea what to do. They have absolutely no clue. They have no negotiation skills. They don't even recognize the Legislative Branch.
The saddest part is they think it makes them look "strong" and "bold" and "steadfast" and "insert-newest-PNAC-adjective-here". But Americans are beginning to see it for what it's ALWAYS been; stubborn intractability and an imperial executive.
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If I were Reid or Pelosi I would trot down to the White House ASAP . . .
because what could be more fun than telling the jug-eared, squinty-eyed, lizard-lipped imbecile impersonating the president of the united states to go fuck himself face-to-face, up-close-and-personal.
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Anchorman?
I wonder if he'll read anything on air if you just print it in his notes. Like Will Ferrell's character in "Anchorman," who'd read anything you'd put on the teleprompter. Maybe we should start hacking into Bush's teleprompter.
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When they meet...
...will he be sitting in Cheney's lap?
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well, he's consistent
This is a president who's always insisted that you never negotiate with your enemies, because evil will only be emboldened, after all.
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"This is not a meeting in order to compromise,"
Wow. And here I'm thinking that we had a representative type of government. Sounds more like a meeting a dictator would have called except Ried and Palosi (so far) still have an opportunity to come out of it alive.
This president is truly a mad man.
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I'm so sick of this
One way to begin to ratchet down the animosity between the WH and the Congressional majority would be to refer to the party as the DemocratIC party. Everywhere in his comments, he refers to "Democrat leadership" and "Democrat majority." when oh when will Dems consistenly refer to the minority as the Republics?
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Spin, spin, and more spin
The Dems need to take a lesson from the Repubs/Bush and do the following:
(1) Stick to their guns, stick to their guns, stick to their guns.
(2) We, the Dems, are all for protecting our troops, protecting our troops, and protecting our troops by sending Bush the following proposed "emergency funding bill" (as an aside, how is the Iraq war an emergency, did Bush forget out it and wake up one morning and say oops, need to get some cash for that little war of mine in Iraq) that contains the following withdrawal of troop deadlines, goals, guidelines, etc.
(3) We, the Dems, ask Bush to agree to protect the troops, protect the troops, and protect the troops by signing our lovely emergency funding bill.
(4) Bush doesn't sign the bill and makes grand, dramatic statements about Dems puting troops in harm way, etc.
(5) Dems return to #1 and start over, repeating the manta as many times as it takes for the MSM to finally report it. The Repubs get what they want, and get what they want reported, by having a consistent message repeated over and over and over again.