Congress today sent President Bush a $124 billion emergency war-funding bill that he has vowed to veto, setting up a confrontation over his Iraq war policy on the fourth anniversary of his so-called “Mission Accomplished” speech aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.
The bill, a supplemental appropriation for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year, was scheduled to arrive at the White House at 4 p.m. EDT, and a Bush spokesman said the president would promptly veto it, then make a statement at 6:10 p.m.
How about pre-live blogging? He’s going to say that politicians in Washington shouldn’t mircomanage the commanders in the ground, and that he wants Congress to hurry up and send him a “clean” bill to sign because the troops are already running out of toothpaste and shaving cream, and bullets aren’t expected to last much longer, either. And he’s sure that pretty soon he and the Democrats will be able to compromise because he’s so damn interested in what they have to say.
Now we don’t have to watch.
Update: Use the time you save by not watching Bush to read Dan Froomkin.
Update 2: Harry Reid is saying the Prez has to explain how he’s going to end the war. If the President thinks that by vetoing this bill he will stop us from changing the direction of the war in Iraq, he is mistaken. Nancy Pelosi says that the bill honored the will of the American people, and they had hoped the President would treat the bill with respect. Instead, President Bush vetoed the bill outright. The President wants a blank check; the Congress is not going to give it to him.
Nancy Pelosi quoted Bush saying in 1999 that a timeline was needed for the war in Kosovo. Heh.
Update 3: Iraq generals to Bush: “You’ve Failed Us”
Thanks, but I wasn’t going to watch anyway. Just the sound of his voice sets my blood pressure to rising. No lie. I’ll read about it later on the blogs.
Thank you so much for providing your blog. I rarely read the press or watch the TV news because I don’t feel that I can trust their integrity – with very few exceptions anyway.
I love the way he makes Petraeus the lackey responsible for the decision of whether or not we stay in Iraq. It’s become a classic Bush maneuver to dodge responsibility by hiding in a smokescreen of supposed counsel.What a joke he is! He is driven by his lies and his need to cover them..every decision he makes is made in the shadow of fear and exposure. It’s the price of being a fraud.
What Bush doesn’t realize is that his failure has already overtaken him, and like the apostle Paul so aptly phrased it..”he’s kicking against the goads”
I hope Pelosi can stand behind her words..I trust she will
Hey Maha.. you forgot to include 9/11 in your pre-live blogging. He made one direct mention of 9/11, and alluded to 9/11 once. Only twice in 7:10 minutes?..he must be slowing down.
Longer than a friggin world war for crying out loud!!Can we as a nation get this administration committed or at least held for a mental evaluation??We are being held captive by a friggin mad man.WTF???
“Setting a deadline for withdrawal is setting a date for failure”– George W Bush
Exactly. I guess I was wrong…he does know.
You know, we have to acknowledge Bush’s integrity. If he were truly as awful as we believe, he would have accepted the $124B and headed off to Argentina. Disappointingly, he just holds 150K or so of our young soldiers hostage. No fun at all. We need a ‘sell by’ date so we can yank him.
Sorry to post a comment again so soon, but surely W vetoed the $124B because it is no longer necessary. The mission was accomplished four years ago, after all. Those Americans stranded in Iraq are just like the high school band sitting at a foreign airport after their moderator ran off with the return fares. Time for a bake sale!