New Direction Means No Compromise
Tue Apr 10, 2007 at 05:58:49 PM PDT
When America needed a leader, the president was caught up in the "political theater" he claims to abhor. Instead of coming up with a real plan to get U.S. troops out of the middle of a Sunni-Shiite civil war, Bush was pandering to the small minority who still support his handling of foreign and domestic affairs. With nothing but failed policies left in his wake, this president resorted once again to bluster in an effort to intimidate Congress and deceive the American people.
Cross-posted to my personal blog
A week and a half ago, as the Senate followed the House in passing troop-funding legislation that includes an end date for American involvement in Iraq’s civil war, President George W. Bush smugly tried to position himselfas the last great defender of our brave airmen, sailors, soldiers and Marines.
"When we have a troop in harm’s way, we expect that troop to be fully funded," he declared at a White House pep rally with House Republicans.
Instead of discussing the issues constructively, the president was too busy implying that those opposed to reckless escalation and open-ended commitment to someone else’s civil war don’t want troops deployed in Iraq to have what they need. It was a cheap shot and it wasn’t backed up by the facts at all – both houses of Congress had just passed robust funding packages for U.S. forces in Iraq and those fighting al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. It’s Bush himself who’s threatening to deny the troops funding.
When America needed a leader, the president was caught up in the "political theater" he claims to abhor. Instead of coming up with a real plan to get U.S. troops out of the middle of a Sunni-Shiite civil war, Bush was pandering to the small minority who still support his handling of foreign and domestic affairs. With nothing but failed policies left in his wake, this president resorted once again to bluster in an effort to intimidate Congress and deceive the American people.
But his act is getting old. People in and out of Washington have wised up. They see through him. They know he doesn’t have a plan for Iraq other than running out the clock and leaving the mess to his successor, a strategy that we know worked so well for the incompetent American presidents of the pre-Civil War era. Who would’ve thought we’d ever see another leader stealing ideas from Franklin Pierce’s playbook?
Now Bush wants to talk with leaders of Congress. There’s nothing wrong with that, but this should’ve been the president’s first move after the Senate voted to repudiate his disastrous handling of the war. Instead he’s been preoccupied with, to use a phrase from Ross Perot’s 1992 book, "shirking responsibility and blaming somebody else."
Bush’s overture to Democrats in the House and Senate is too little, too late. He’s burned the political capital that he bragged about after his re-election and it’s time he deal with the consequences – for once in his presidency.
Democrats must stand firm. The American people voted for a new direction last November, not business as usual. If voters didn’t want change, they would’ve kept the rubber-stampers of the 109th Congress in power.
When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sit down with the president – and they ought to because that’s what real leaders do – they shouldn’t give anything away. Congress has given Bush six years worth of inches and he’s taken us miles and miles off course.
Cross-posted to my personal blog
Christopher Truscott can be reached at chris.truscott@gmail.com. He’s just waiting for Bush to go back to Texas. Is it 2009 yet?
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