Axis of Weasels hard at work
Democrats are trying to shift blame to the President for their vote to withdraw troops from Iraq. As I said yesterday, Harry Reid hopes that his willing accomplices in the press can make the case for him and turn the tables so that the President is to blame for Congress’ inability to pass funding for defense without loading it up with pork. And the Washington Post does their level best;
 Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said it is Bush who would pay the price if a veto fight slowed down funding for the military, including billions of dollars for veterans’ health care and other benefits. “If the president vetoes this bill, it is an asterisk in history,” Reid said. “He sets the record of undermining the troops more than any president we’ve ever had.”
So by vetoing a bill that undermines our troops, the President will be undermining our troops? I’d like to see a wire diagram of that process.
To their credit, Republicans seem willing to stand up for the President for a change;
Bush spent much of the closed-door meeting with House Republicans pressing an issue that many conservatives have already latched on to as a unifying force — the pork-barrel spending, unrelated to the war, in the bill. At one point, Bush asked House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) if he could rally his troops to sustain a veto on the spending issue alone, even if Democrats stripped out language on troop withdrawals. When Boehner turned to his colleagues to ask if they would stay with Bush, they gave him a standing ovation.
And to show how serious the Democrats are about funding the war;
But Congress now leaves town for a recess, with the House not returning until April 16.
In other words, they just want to run out the clock instead of playing the game.
This is exactly how the Democrats pulled a fast one on the first President Bush in 1991 and trapped him into signing the tax hike despite his “no new taxes” pledge that cost him the 1992 election. With troops deployed in the field, they presented the President with a tax increase and pledged to not give the President authorization to use force against Hussein.
Joseph Curl of the Washington Times reports that this Bush don’t play that;
“We stand united in saying loud and clear that when we’ve got a troop in harm’s way, we expect that troop to be fully funded,” the president said, surrounded by Republicans on the White House North Portico.
    “And we got commanders making tough decisions on the ground, we expect there to be no strings on our commanders. We expect the Congress to be wise about how they spend the people’s money…”“Yesterday, I gave a speech, making it clear that I’ll veto a bill that restricts our commanders on the ground in Iraq, a bill that doesn’t fund our troops, a bill that’s got too much spending on it. I made that clear to the members,” he said.
John Kerry, who clearly could give not a tiny rat’s ass for the troops chimed in;
“Despite the reckless veto threats from President Bush, a majority of the Senate joined the House today in telling the administration that we need to set a deadline to bring home our troops from Iraq,” said Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat. “A deadline is the best strategy for ending Iraq’s civil war because it forces Iraqis to stand up for Iraq. Guns alone cannot bring peace to Iraq.”
It’s not the veto that’s reckless, you big sissy, it’s spending my taxpayer dollars to pay off various interests to make a pointless political point and sacrificing our national security for the sake of a few egos.
Not to mentioning pissing off our troops even more you have already.
