The Hissy Fit

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President Bush’s fit (staged in front of some props people in military uniforms and VFW hats) went roughly as follows:

The Dems abdicated the responsibility to support the troops, he said. Instead, the Dems, in an act of political theater, voted to substitute their judgment for that of the military commanders on the ground. The bill contains “rigid restriction” that would require “an army of lawyers” to understand.

(That would be an army of Bush-appointed lawyers. One normal lawyer could skim through it and explain it to you without much trouble.)

There’s too much pork, too many conditions, and an artificial timetable for withdrawal, he said, and I will veto this bill if it comes to my desk.

(He’d get away with it, because there’s far from a veto-proof majority in the House, and it’s a long shot passing the bill in the Senate at all.)

What the Dems did today, the President said, delays delivery of vital resources for our troops.

(To which I say, again, if he’d put more Iraq War funds in the regular budget and stop hitting Congress up for “emergency” supplemental bills — money he knew months earlier he’d have to ask for — then he wouldn’t have to worry about vital resources for our troops.)

You’ll like this: “We’re beginning to see some signs of progress.” Please.

He wants a “clean bill that I can sign without delay.” Congress is supposed to just rubber stamp his little requisitions. Well, dammit, is this a republic, or ain’t it?

Don’t answer that.

Bush didn’t take questions.

14 thoughts on “The Hissy Fit”

  1. How about playing real hardball and let the righties know this is the only bill they get. If they don’t allow this bill to pass or the shrub vetos it, there will be no funding at all. State it up front and if the funding isn’t there it is righties fault.

  2. It seems like five years should be long enough to conclude a war that was supposed to last six weeks, probably not six months. He should be embarrassed to say that now, after four years, that we’re ‘beginning to see some signs of progress.’

    Four years also seems like enough time, even considering the average competence level of Bush appointees, to have included this war in the regular budget, if they were honest men trying to do the best for our nation and our troops, and govern honestly. He should be embarrassed that his budgeting is so bad, or so cynical, that he needs a supplemental appropriation in order to provide ‘vital resources’ at all, much less provide them on a time-sensitive basis.

    But of course, if he were capable of embarrassment, he wouldn’t have accused others of abdicating their responsibility to support the troops mere weeks after the Walter Reed story, and mere hours after a report that hospitals across the country are just as bad.

    Perhaps it is just because I am a member of the reality-based, “DFH” crowd, but I fail to see how, if Congress appropriates funds but the President vetoes it, Congress is depriving the troops of funding. It seems to me like, if the timing is so critical, the smart play is to sign the bill, then lobby Congress to remove the restrictions before the deadlines. But there I go again, forgetting that they aren’t speaking English, they’re speaking Cynical Manipulator, their native tongue.

  3. How does one know the difference between an artificial time table and a genuine time table?

  4. I saw a similar attitude in Bush as I saw in my cat when he went to the vets and had his temperature taken. He didn’t like it.

  7. It’s also good to see that for once, for ONCE, it seems the Whitehouse is having to dance to some tune other than their own. They are not the only ones attempting to (mis)guide the ship here.

    For that alone, I’m on board with Pelosi’s next moves.

  9. So who is in control of this country anyway? A military junta or the American people? Last I knew, in America, the American people told the military what to do, not the other way around.

  10. A hissy fit and a big fat hairball, is what it sounded like to me. At least in the feline sense, Bush had a “productive” day.

  12. This is what happens when you whisper into a stupid, egotistical, childish fratboys ear that he can be The King.
    Karl and Dick fed Chimpy W. McEgo a steady diet of Unitarian President. Now he believes that only HE matters. Only HE can be “The Decider.”
    America is a DISASTER! And worse is coming… Our economy is about to fold like a house of cards.
    And wait until he tries to do something against Iran! The Gates of Hell will open up.
    But, only HE matters. Only HIS ego matters. Only HIS legacy (of cowardice, cronyism, and craven corruption) matters.
    This is what happens when “little men” think they’re “big men!”
    If there’s a God, may he/she/it spare us. And if there is a God, I don’t think he/she/it will. Why should God? WE brought this on ourselves…
    WE have a little under 2 years to fix it. If we can. I’m doing what I can (Fayetteville, NC Peace with Justice, Anti-torture, HK on J, working for the Obama campaign, etc…).
    What are you doing?
    If it’s nothing, please join some of us in our effort’s to stop “The Evil Empire.”
    The one that Nixon began.
    That Reagan propelled.
    That H. W. Bush maintained.
    That W. is now The King of.
    For, what we are doing, is truly evil. Help make America good again. While we may still have time…

  13. 1. It is not illegal war funding, it is illegal occupation funding.
    2. Just how many fascist republican congress folk voted against funding THEIR WAR?
    3. That “W”art on the presidency, the governor usurping the White House is not worth the time to listen to, a waste of air and space.
    IMPEACH IMMEDIATELY before it is too late.

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