President George Bush took a verbal swat at Congress overseas yesterday, making a comment that hurled some more gasoline and lit matches on political polarization in the United States.
Bush’s suggestion: that Iraq’s parliament is more efficient than the one in his own country.
The Chicago Tribune’s blog has the text of a response letter written by Rep. Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. We’re running the letter in full here because it recaps what Bush said and is indicative of the administration’s seeming desire to aggravate interests rather than aggregate them. In this instance, Bush didn’t have to say what he did (basically suggesting Iraq’s parliament is more efficient than the U.S. Congress, which just happens to have more members of the opposition party) — and by saying it he basically indugled in some political provocation.
Emanuel used the opening the President gave him to address several issues from his party’s standpoint:
Emanuel (D-Ill.) penned the following letter to Josh Bolten, the president’s chief of staff, in response to the president’s remarks.
“Dear Mr. Bolten:
“It has long been the custom that members of Congress do not go overseas and criticize the president — that partisanship ends at the water’s edge. But reading today’s accounts of the President’s remarks in Australia, it is clear he has a different view. Asked about the lack of political progress in Iraq, the President said Iraq’s Parliament had passed 60 laws, and added, “It’s more than our legislature passed.â€
“It was a false and gratuitous shot, which ignores the scores of laws we have passed, sometimes over the President’s strong objection, to promote economic fairness for America’s struggling middle class. From passing a long-awaited increase in the minimum wage to an historic reform of the student loan and grant program so millions more young people can achieve the dream of college, our Congress is offering new hope to the American people. We can debate these accomplishments at another time on another day.
“But as a veteran of the political wars, I am not concerned about the slight as much as I am about the President’s spirited defense of the status quo in Iraq. The truth is, the Iraqi Parliament has made virtually no progress on any of the major issues that must be resolved to end the civil war there.
“Their most noteworthy agreement was a resolution to adjourn for summer vacation, while our troops toiled in 115 degree heat to try and halt the bloodshed. It is the same stubborn defiance of the truth that has marked his stewardship of this four and half year war. And the truth is this:
“The valiant efforts of our troops cannot and will not substitute for real, determined steps on the part of the Iraqis to resolve the issues at the heart of their civil war.
“So I am not asking for an apology. Like most Americans, I am merely asking the president to finally come to grips with the reality of the failures of the Iraqi leadership and the shortcomings of his own Iraqi policy.
We do not need cheap shots or photo ops. We need a change in policy to relieve our troops and put the Iraqis on notice that it’s long past time for them to take responsibility for their own future.’’
“Sincerely,
“Rahm Emanuel
“Member of Congress’’
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.