Thursday, October 18, 2007

The Blame Game: Hey, I Thought W Didn't Like People Playing It?

You remember a bit ago when people started pointing fingers around the leak situation and Valarie Plame, no?

You remember the W, Rove and Co chastising a wide assortment of people for "playing the blame game" revolving around the Fed response to Katrina, don't you?

You remember the Presidential spokesmodel, Scotty McMessage McClellan saying we don't "play the blame game," and suggesting that people shouldn't do it otherwise they would receive the Parental Look of Disdain from the President, among others?

Well, of course, here's the president just the other day doing what? Of course, it couldn't be "playing the blame game," could it? Let's have a look:
Q Is it all their fault that these bills aren't moving, that you've got these veto threats out?

THE PRESIDENT: I think it is their fault that bills aren't moving, yeah.
What? That doesn't sound like a heaping load of blame to you? But really, the veto is a last resort for failed diplomacy. Who is not bending to the will of the people here?

Let's have a look at how he justifies his actions:
As I said, I'm not a part of the legislative branch. All I can do is ask them to move bills. It's up to the leaders to move the bills. And you bet I'm going to put veto threats out. Of course, I want to remind you, I put a lot of veto threats out when the Republicans were in control of Congress. I said, now, if you overspend I'm going to veto your bills, and they listened, and we worked together. Whether or not that's the case, we'll find out.
Now if that doesn't sound a lot like the spoiled child taking his ball and going home because he is not winning the game, I don't know what does. Really, that's not how I understand the history of the President's relationship with the prior congress. But of course, I'm critical of a man who brought us into an unnecessary, protracted, bloody, expensive war with and inside of Iraq. I can't rightly and most certainly don't trust him to act in our best interest.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...


House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey (D-Wis.)

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Obey and other congressional leaders sat down with Bush in the White House Cabinet Room to discuss homeland security spending: Then, as now, Congress wanted more, and Bush wanted less.

"Bush walked in, and before we could say a word, he said: 'If you appropriate a dollar more than I've asked for homeland security, I'll veto the bill. . . . I've got time for four or five comments, and I'm out of here' -- and that's virtually an exact quote," Obey recalls.

"When it came my turn I said, 'Mr. President, I've been coming down here for 30 years, and you're the first guy in that chair who's ever told me his mind was closed before the subject was even opened.' "

"I cannot tell you what a profound effect that meeting had on me," he said. "I was absolutely thunderstruck at the arrogance."