Mr. Bush spoke at Centcom today, invoking 9/11 and commemorating the stupidest words ever uttered
on his watch. “Mission accomplished” was then followed by years and
years of carnage and incompetence, with a bit of stubborn on the side.
Today Democrats send the Iraq spending bill to the president’s desk. They’re
doing it with some theatre, which is as important as it is symbolic.
Democratic leaders in Congress are planning a special ceremony on Tuesday
afternoon to send President Bush a bill that sets timetables for troop withdrawal
from Iraq.The timing is no accident. It comes on the fourth anniversary of the day
Mr. Bush stood on an aircraft carrier under the banner “Mission Accomplished”
and declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended.The Democrats’ ceremony, featuring the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi,
and the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, is part of the elaborate political
theater at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue surrounding the Iraq spending
bill, which is destined to produce only the second veto of Mr. Bush’s
presidency.But with Mr. Bush planning to spend Tuesday in Florida talking with military
commanders, the White House was being coy on Monday about what kind of theatrics
of his own — if any — he might stage. Democrats, however, said
they expected the veto to come Wednesday. … ..
When Bush vetoes the bill the next stage will be set. Some members want to
put time constraints on the next bill, which means not giving Mr. Bush all the
funding, but which requires him to come back to Congress in 60 days, for instance,
to prove progress is being made. Steny Hoyer is against
it. Murtha is for it. We’ve been here before.
John Edwards has a Blogad asking for your help. Please sign his petition demanding that Democrats stand up to George W. Bush by clicking on the ad in the left hand margin. Here’s the petition link if you need it, but please click on the Blodad if you can. However you do it just please just sign the petition.
Four years and Bush is still talking about “progress.”
It’s all about benchmarks and funding now. Some see benchmarks as simply a timetable, while others think
it’s about making Bush come back to Congress to make the case for more money
and not giving him all he needs up front. It’s all the same to me. You can’t
have benchmarks without tying the funding to it. It’s the only thing that will
work. We can’t back down.
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