{"id":10468,"date":"2007-04-10T13:10:47","date_gmt":"2007-04-10T17:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/10468.html"},"modified":"2007-04-10T13:10:47","modified_gmt":"2007-04-10T17:10:47","slug":"bush-invites-lawmakers-to-listen-to-how-right-he-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/bush-invites-lawmakers-to-listen-to-how-right-he-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Bush invites lawmakers to listen to how right he is"},"content":{"rendered":"

The White House is probably aware of the public relations benefits involved with chatting with one’s rivals. When it comes to the war in Iraq, House and Senate Democratic leaders, perhaps foolishly, have indicated many times that they’re willing to broker some kind of compromise with the White House over funding. <\/p>\n

Dems don’t want<\/i> a veto; they want a spending bill. Both chambers have already approved funding with a withdrawal timeline; if the president wants to work out a deal, now’s the time to pick up the phone. So far, the Bush gang, true to form, has preferred silly games to actual governing.<\/p>\n

Today, it reached an almost comedic level<\/a>.<\/p>\n

President Bush on Tuesday invited Democrats to discuss their standoff over a war-spending bill, but he made clear he would not change his position opposing troop withdrawals. The White House bluntly said the meeting would not be a negotiation. […]<\/p>\n

“At this meeting, the leaders in Congress can report on progress on getting an emergency spending bill to my desk,” Bush said. “We can discuss the way forward on a bill that is a clean bill, a bill that funds our troops without artificial timetables for withdrawal and without handcuffing our generals on the ground. I’m hopeful we’ll see some results soon from the Congress.” […]<\/p>\n

In essence, Bush invited the Democratic leaders of Congress to come hear the stance he has offered for weeks. He again accused them of shirking their responsibilities. “We’re at war,” Bush said. “It is irresponsible for the Democratic leadership in Congress to delay for months on end while our troops in combat are waiting for the funds they need to succeed.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The AP’s headline reads, “Bush inviting Dems to meet about Iraq.” A more accurate headline might read, “Bush inviting Dems to give him everything he wants with no exceptions.”<\/p>\n

Can someone explain to me what the point is of even inviting Dems to the White House?
\n
\nThankfully, the point was not lost<\/a> on White House reporters.<\/p>\n

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino … said Bush would invite congressional leaders to the White House to “discuss with him how they are going to be able to bring him a clean bill that he can sign,” Perino said. “I will point out this is not a negotiation.”<\/p>\n

Her description of Bush’s invitation immediately raised questions about exactly what the point was.<\/p>\n

When a reporter said it sounded like an invitation for Democrats to agree with Bush, Perino said, “Well, hopefully so…. Maybe [lawmakers] need to hear again from the president about why he thinks it is foolish to set arbitrary timetables for withdrawal.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, of course, that’s it. Pelosi and Reid have been listening to Bush say for years that he wants an open-ended commitment to a losing effort that he’s botched every step of the way, but what they really need is to hear it again<\/i>.<\/p>\n

It’s almost as if the White House is trying<\/i> to sound ridiculous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The White House is probably aware of the public relations benefits involved with chatting with one’s rivals. When it comes to the war in Iraq, House and Senate Democratic leaders, perhaps foolishly, have indicated many times that they’re willing to broker some kind of compromise with the White House over funding. Dems don’t want a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10468\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}