Bush looking for cowboy showdown

The political saga over Iraq continued in full force today with Bush looking defiant in his news conference where he blamed Democrats and renewed his veto promise. Keith Olbermann has a great segment with some great footage of Bush and an interview with one of my favorite senators: Russ Feingold. From Countdown's blog TheNewshole:

The Will of the People: President Bush once again bound for vacation in Crawford tomorrow, today slamming Congress for being on vacation away from the capitol, insisting lawmakers should get back to work in order to do the people's business of rubber-stamping whatever it is he wants for his war in Iraq. Senator Russ Feingold joins us with a scathing response to a scathing presidential press conference

The NYTimes compares the current political showdown with the budget stand-off in 1995 between Bill Clinton and congressional republicans. I think there are some key differences and that in this case Congress will win out. The public is behind the Dems and gave them a mandate in November to get out of Iraq. This time there are lives on the line, not just federal government paychecks and Bush will be seen cutting off funding by issuing a veto, not the Dems.

Via Dailykos, Harry Reid comes out swinging:

If the President vetoes this bill he will have delayed funding for troops and kept in place his strategy for failure.

In further hypocrisy, Bush criticizes Congress for being on vacation even though he is about to go on one himself.

Also via Kos, Think Progress tears apart Bush's attempt to blame the Dems for delaying the funding, by pointing out:

During the reign of the Do-Nothing 109th Congress, Bush submitted two major supplemental spending requests. Each request experienced a delay far more than 57 days with hardly a peep of anger from the Commander-In-Chief. Details below:

February 14, 2005: Bush submits $82 billion supplemental bill
May 11, 2005: Bush signs the supplemental
Total time elapsed: 86 days

February 16, 2006: Bush submits $72 billion supplemental bill
June 15, 2006: Bush signs the supplemental
Total time elapsed: 119 days

After the 119 day delay, Bush did not say an “irresponsible” Congress had “undercut the troops” or that military families had “paid the price of failure.” Instead, Bush told the conservative-led Congress, “I applaud those Members of Congress who came together in a fiscally responsible way to provide much-needed funds for the War on Terror.”

It seems like Bush is so out on a limb that even Hillary "Hilldog" Clinton thinks it is safe enough to urge Dems to press Bush on Iraq.

Some other quick links from Democratic Undergrdound:

• Students pelted Karl Rove in protest
• Matthew Dowd's criticism signals a larger GOP rebellion?
• Mccain's ridiculous photo-op in Baghdad

Meanwhile, it turns out that the Dems have been united after all, even if the media try to paint a different picture.

~BT