Thursday, October 18, 2007

Why Bush is So Ready to Use the Veto Now When He Never Did When Republicans Were "Spending Like Drunken Sailors"

This from an article in today's Washington Post stood out for me:
"President Bush declared yesterday that he remains 'relevant' despite his political troubles, and he derided Democrats for running a do-nothing Congress that has failed to address critical domestic, economic and security issues in the nine months since they took control of Capitol Hill."
Back on August 2nd, I did a post, Why Is President Bush So Willing to Veto Spending Bills All of a Sudden?

In that post, I referred to a news conference then President Bill Clinton had in the wake of the 1994 Republican landslide and takeover of Congress. Clinton went out of his way to tell everyone he was still "relevant."

I have believed for months that President Bush's newfound fiscal conservatism and willingness to use a veto--given that for six years he stood by and watched the Republican Congress "spend like a bunch of drunken sailors" and never once used his veto pen--is as much about his wanting to be "relevant" in the wake of the Democratic takeover of Congress as anything.

Yesterday, in his "Clintonesque" news conference he confirmed it.

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