President Bush gave Congress a pass on earmarks. That will come back to haunt the Republican party.
I seldom disagree with Ed Morrissey in his commentary, but I do here. We can't have it both ways. During the time that Bill Frist was Senate Majority Leader and Denny Hastert was Speaker of the House, all the pundits said that they did exactly what the White House wanted, and therefore, had no institutional integrity. Frist, in particular, was savaged by everyone for being Bush's guy, who did everything that the President wanted. Now Captain Ed is saying that Bush had to cover for his spend happy Congress. I don't think so. I think Bush was very happy with what was going on, and now sees a political advantage in fighting with the Democrats over everything. The Republican base was not happy with the wasteful spending, and Bush is trying to help his party, by preaching to the choir.
Ron Christie has an op-ed in "The Hill" that sums up what I think. George Bush is proving to be much livelier than the pundits thought.
I think that in the end it comes down to who blinks first. I don't think it will be the President.
Well, it didn't take the President long to respond. Bravo Mr. President. Well done!!!
President Bush seems determined to fight the battle over Iraq war funding with Congress. Good for him.
I suspect the Democrats are going to find there is a lot of fight left in George Bush.
Peter Berkowitz has an incisive analysis of the insane hatred of George W. Bush by the left.
Good for the President. It would be nice if Congress got the message.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows that "Americans have turned sharply away from President Bush and toward domestic issues favoring his partisan adversaries. But offsetting that demand for change in the Presidential contest are reservations about Senator Clinton's truthfulness and ideology."
I'm not sure who advised the President to veto this bill, but I think that he got bad advice. I have told family and friends for years that a person should always pick their battles carefully. In this instance the President vetoed an Authorization bill. Congress routinely does the authorization bills first, and then at a later date does the corresponding appropriation bills. What this means in terms of the Water Projects bill, which was an authorization bill, Congress is saying that these are the projects that we intend to authorize. That doesn't mean that they will all be included in the appropriations bill to follow. Historically, about 70 percent of all projects authorized actually get appropriated. The President, to prove his point of fiscal responsibility, would have been better off to have waited for the appropriations bill and exercise his veto on that bill, which is where the money is.
The President's approval rating remains low, but Congress' rating is even lower. What does that tell you about the Democrat's failure to accomplish anything?
President Bush met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy today and they agreed that Iran should not have nuclear weapons. Finally, a friend in France.
I just listened to Senator Harkin on the floor of the Senate bashing President Bush for not pressing Musharraf on what is going on in Pakistan. Well as usual, Senator Harkin is wrong again. The President is pushing Musharraf as hard as he can to hold elections and restore the Constitution.
As usual Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters has an excellent post about how the Democrats continue to shoot themselves in the foot, this time over the Mukasey nomination
I don't agree with Frank Gaffney at all. He believes that President Bush's policies during his first term have come unraveled. While there have certainly been unexpected road blocks, I think that the President and his Secretary of State have basically followed through on his first term initiatives.
Frank Rich has an interesting op-ed in the New York Times. I think he is on the money with his analysis. But only to the extent that the liberal Democrats will fall into the trap set by the much smarter Bush administration. Iran will become a big issue in the 2008 election, and if the Democrats react predictably, they could very well lose the White House.
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