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[Milwaukiedave]

Bush's empty words on bipartisanship

Published: November 10, 2006

President George W. Bush was back on television on Thursday, without the scowl he'd been sporting the day after the election but with the surviving members of his cabinet. He talked about how much he was looking forward to lunching with Democratic leaders and working on "the great issues facing America."

Bush said his team would "respect the results" of the election.

Just maybe not right away.

Without missing a beat, Bush made it clear that, for now, his idea of how to "put the elections behind us" is to use the Republicans' last two months in control of Congress to try to push through one of the worst ideas his administration and its Republican allies on Capitol Hill have come up with: a bill that would legalize his illegal wiretapping program and gut the law that limits a president's ability to abuse his power in this way.

Bush listed his priorities for the forthcoming lame-duck session of Congress. It was an odd list that included only two really urgent items - the bills that keep federal money flowing and the nomination of Robert Gates as the next secretary of defense. The rest was a grab bag that included one worthy but hardly urgent idea (getting Vietnam into the World Trade Organization) and a series of ideas ranging from bad to truly awful that Bush has been unable to get through Congress and hopes to ram through in the Republicans' last weeks.

For example, he wants the Senate to ratify his recess appointment of John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations. That vote, which is likely to be strongly debated, can easily wait for the new Congress, and should. Bush also pressed for quick passage of "the bipartisan energy legislation," which had congressional officials scratching their heads in puzzlement about which bill he might mean. And he wants immediate approval of his administration's deal to sell civilian nuclear technology to India despite that nation's refusal to sign or abide by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/10/opinion/edbush.php

[Ya-ta Boy]

It may be time for a filibuster or two in the Senate.