Senate v. Bush Showdown

The administration is raising its rhetoric in its battle over funding for Iraq. It has been none too pleased with the Senate for fulfilling its consitutional duty to check the authority of the executive.

When Bill Clinton had a showdown with the Republican congress over the Budget, the public increasingly sided with Bubba. Bush claims that congress will eventually be held responsible in the same way for "abandoning" our troops. I disagree. There is a fundamental difference between being forced to shut down the federal government and being forced to constrain the operations of our troops.

The public is much futher removed from the latter and, whereas the Republican congress was proposing cuts to social services during Bill Clinton's presidency (difficult to begin with), Bush is fighting to prolong an unpopular war. To win this political battle, the Democrats need to step up the pressure; they must maintain the constant message that Bush and Cheney are untrustworthy as leaders and that they have lost contact with the needs of the country. By discrediting the policies of the administration (which is easy to do, given their incompetence) congress will be able to remove our troops from the civil war.

Lets hope they succeed.

Posted by Peter