Pacific Views

Dubya can't count.

For some reason, the prez seems to think that 57 is a bigger number than 119.

At his press conference this morning, Dubya berated the Democratic Congress for taking 57 days (so far) to pass his supplemental funding request for the Iraq occupation.

In a time of war, it's irresponsible for the Democrat leadership -- Democratic leadership in Congress to delay for months on end while our troops in combat are waiting for the funds. The bottom line is this: Congress's failure to fund our troops on the front lines will mean that some of our military families could wait longer for their loved ones to return from the front lines. And others could see their loved ones headed back to the war sooner than they need to. That is unacceptable to me, and I believe it is unacceptable to the American people.

Members of Congress say they support the troops. Now they need to show that support in deed, as well as in word. Members of Congress are entitled to their views and should express them. Yet debating these differences should not come at the expense of funding our troops.

Congress's most basic responsibility is to give our troops the equipment and training they need to fight our enemies and protect our nation. They're now failing in that responsibility, and if they do not change course in the coming weeks, the price of that failure will be paid by our troops and their loved ones.

Congress is failing. They're irresponsible. They're endangering the troops. Pretty strong words, eh?

Given that language, I have to wonder why Dubya didn't give the same tongue-lashing to the Republican Congress when it waited 86 days to pass the supplemental bill for the occupation in 2005. Or when it waited 119 days to pass the bill just last year. Wasn't that irresponsible? Didn't the delay put the troops' lives in danger? Nope, the 119-day delay was 'a fiscally responsible way to provide much-needed funds for the War on Terror.'

Today's comments by the prez are just another desperate attempt to make it look like the Democrats are responsible for the continuing failures of the administration's Iraq adventure, and not the series of bad decisions made by Dubya, his advisors, and the Republican-controlled Congress. And they're yet another example of the contempt in which our Dear Leader regards the intelligence of people like you and me.

Posted by Magpie at April 3, 2007 03:55 PM | US Politics | Technorati links |