President Bush to Congress: “I Am The Greatest”
By implementing his threat to veto legislation to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq on Tuesday, US President George W. Bush (who appears more and more like a knight in shining armour), has begun to brandish his sword at Congress (or for that matter whoever crosses his path).
It appears that he wouldn’t mind riding solo in his ‘War Against Congress’! At this rate, he may be taking on the world sooner than later!!!
The Associated Press reports about a historic showdown between President Bush and the US Congress over whether the unpopular and costly Iraq war should end or escalate.
“It was a day of high political drama, falling on the fourth anniversary of Bush’s ‘Mission Accomplished’ speech declaring that major combat operations had ended in Iraq.
‘In only the second veto of his presidency, Bush rejected legislation pushed by Democratic leaders that would require the first U.S. combat troops to be withdrawn by Oct. 1 with a goal of a complete pullout six months later.
” ‘This is a prescription for chaos and confusion and we must not impose it on our troops,’ Bush said in a nationally broadcast statement from the White House. He said the bill would ‘mandate a rigid and artificial deadline’ for troop pullouts, and “it makes no sense to tell the enemy when you plan to start withdrawing.’
“Democrats accused Bush of ignoring Americans’ desire to stop the war, which has claimed the lives of more than 3,350 members of the military.
” ‘The president wants a blank check,’ said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., moments after Bush’s appearance. ‘The Congress is not going to give it to him.’ She said lawmakers would work with him to find common ground but added that there was ‘great distance’ between them on Iraq.
“The legislation amounted to a rare rebuke of a wartime president and an assertion by Democrats that Congress must play a major role in Iraq and the extent of U.S. involvement.”
One hopes that good sense prevails on Wednesday when Bush would meet with Congressional leaders — Democrats and Republicans alike — to discuss new legislation.
But the big question is: Will the knight in the shining armour dismount while talking to Congressional leader, or continue a monologue perched on his high horse?
8 Responses to “President Bush to Congress: “I Am The Greatest””
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Not a sword, a pen:
Bush signed the veto with a pen given to him by Robert Derga, the father of Marine Corps Reserve Cpl. Dustin Derga, who was killed in Iraq on May 8, 2005. The elder Derga spoke with Bush two weeks ago at a meeting the president had with military families at the White House.
Derga asked Bush to promise to use the pen in his veto. On Tuesday, Derga contacted the White House to remind Bush to use the pen, and so he did.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070501/BREAKING/70501030&start=1
I don’t suppose Reid and Pelosi used a pen from Mary Tillman?
[...] what we’ve seen so far hasn’t been chaos or confusion. Stuff happens. Some may find irony in Bush saying setting a date for failure. when the day of Mission Accomplished is a reminder of [...]
“I don’t suppose Reid and Pelosi used a pen from Mary Tillman?”
Great comment. And one that is symbolic of the administration’s many attempts to put a falsely positive face on this war.
Is Bush really the lone stalwart warrior fighting bravely with most of Congress, the American people and the rest of the world against him?Is he right and the rest of the world wrong? Or is it that he can’t bear to lose a war, as was true of LBJ, Nixon and Ford?
Notice we have suddenly stopped hearing all of those stories coming out of the WH about how the Iranians were sabatoging our efforts to achieve victory in Iraq; either he was trying to build a case for attacking Iran or wanted to blame them for the fact that we are not winning there. Now, I guess there’s no need since he can put all of the blame for a pending loss on the Democrats or turf it to the next president.
Can someone from the right please explain how exactly progress can be achieved in Iraq without benchmarks? And if you do introduce benchmarks, how can those benchmarks work if there are no consequences to missing them?
Both the Secretaries of Defence and State have told the Iraqi Government that the American peoples’ patience is not unlimited. Maliki could care less, as the President has made clear that there will be no withdrawal of American troops under his watch.
Now we read that Maliki is actively working against his cabinet colleagues, undermining their decisions and replacing Iraqi generals our commanders in the field trust with Generals loyal to the most extreme Shia elements in the parliament.
And our soldiers should die for this?
To anyone with an ounce of sense it is obvious that the President is no longer acting in the best interests of the country or the troops.
> who appears more and
> more like a knight in
> shining armour
Put down that hookah.
> Notice we have suddenly
> stopped hearing all of those
> stories coming out of the
> WH about how the Iranians
> were sabatoging our efforts
> to achieve victory in Iraq;
The Tillman story is newer news, along with the bill and the veto and subsequent negotiations with the Democrats.
Plus, Bush is starting to yield to the Democrats and the critics (or to James Baker and that crowd). Now the word is that Rice is permitted to talk with an Iranian counterpart.
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=rice+iran
We all know (or should all know) that Iran has been meddling in Iraq and controls al-Sadr and wants to control southern Iraq once we have left Iraq.
DLS- I think its more than that. I have read that the stories were an attempt to shift attention from the loss in Iraq. The same neocons that pushed us into that war wanted Bush to attack Iran before leaving office, taking out their nukes. There is one poster who consistently was urging it here around that time. But the stories stopped suddenly, and I read that the military stood their ground and told the administration it was out of the question. If only they had done that 4 years ago.