Well, the Dems in the House and Senate struggled mightily to pass a nearly toothless emergency spending supplemental. It seems like just yesterday that the Dem base heard those plaintive cries of "It Is The Best That We Could Do®".
And now, that big bad pretzel-bender in the White House has threatened a veto. The Reicht Wingnut media have sternly declared that the Democratic Party will be divided over this and quickly give the Bushiter his blood money without strings.
Oh, what to do. What to do. What to do, if the Bushiter vetoes the bill?
Well, how about the Dems get SMART and TOUGH? I saw that 'spine' floating amongst the banners at that last 'Out of Iraq' demonstration in DC.
Perhaps a 'Plan With A Spine!®' is in order now. And announcing a 'Plan With A Spine!®' might just make the Bushiter sign the bill and shut the hell up.
Follow me over the jump for just such a 'Plan with a Spine!®'
I am a middle-aged guy, but I can still remember when a GREAT Speaker of the House could get things done without a huge majority by just using their smarts. The Rethuglicans were brutal rubberstamp machines, but not very smart.
Play it smart and PLAY THEM!
So, here's an outline of a pretty good 'Plan with a Spine!®'
- Split the Afghanistan and Iraq portions of the funding into two bills. The Bushiter relys on people who support Afghanistan to help him out on Iraq which is not nearly as popular. So let's DIVIDE them!
- De-pork all the bills. Announce that nobody should vote for the bills to get pork for their pet donors until "the troops come first'. Another excuse to veto the new bills down the 'intertubes'.
- Pass the Afghanistan funding bill. This should be easy, after all, who is going to vote against Afghanistan? Not many on either side of the aisle.
- Pass the Iraq Withdrawal Funding. No benchmarks, timetables, timelines, or any other micromanagement of 'Bushiter's Folly' other than to say it is only to be used for withdrawal from Iraq whenever it is to begin. There is no reason to fight this bill because there are no benchmarks, timelines, timetables, yadda-yadda in there to fight over.
- Pass a 30-day continuing resolution for no more than $10 billion. Announce that Mr. Bush is very welcome to come back to the hill to regale congress with his tales of success, school painting, purple fingers and whatnot. And he is more than welcome ask for more money when he comes. Of course, congress has other business to do, so his signing of name-that-bill would go a long way towards getting his next round of blood money passed.
As always, please feel free to make improvements in the Comments. Let's all remember that failing to come up with a 'Plan With A Spine!®' means we will have to listen to YET ANOTHER ROUND of "It Is The Best That We Could Do®".
And I am already tired of that old song. It has no beat, no lyrics and I am going to vote the "It Is The Best That We Could Do®" singers off the island.
--Lefty!!!