Another one from Steve Benen:
Today, Bush emphasized what he describes as a "philosophical" opposition to the ipartisan legislation -- the White House concedes this is about ideology, not results -- in his radio address, which ironically accused lawmakers of putting S-CHIP in jeopardy.
I find it hard to credit the idea that Bush has an ideology beyond that of any sophomore frat boy. So now, instead of pandering to the likes of Bill Kristol or James Dobson, he's pandering to Grover Norquist. And the same compassionate conservatism is at work: fuck the children.
The key factor is that the president has misrepresented the bill to the public to justify his threatened veto, which he will do not based on any analysis of the public good, but on his ideology, such as it is. (And don't think that his disdain for universal health care is linked to anything more than the interests of his real constituency.) Be sure to check out the link to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities commentary. Sort of blows Bush out of the water.
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And why are the Dems not pinning this directly on the Republicans? Why are they allowing the public discourse to portray them as weak? This is one more promised veto that they should be capitalizing on with all their might -- and they're letting it slip out of their hands like rainwater in Spring. Who the hell is in charge of their PR?
I really begin to give some credit to the idea that Washington is completely out of touch with the rest of the country and the whole exercise is just kabuki: an ancient form of highly stylized drama.
It seems that no one in Washington has figured out what the '06 election actually meant.
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