Picking and Choosing Fights

Before you get into a tizzy about the Democrats caving in to Bush and giving him everything he wanted on Iraq - full funding for the war with no timetables for progress from the Iraqi government - bear this in mind. Had the Democrats stuck to their pea shooters and demanded timetables, progress reports and the like, Bush would have vetoed the bill and it would have been sustained. The Democrats would have been faulted for not funding the troops and being derelict in their duty, so they had no choice. Due to the nature of presidential prerogative and power, this situation didn't have to be masterminded by Karl Rove. It created itself. As long as Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi don't have enough votes to overcome Bush's intransigence, they will give him funding for the war for the time being and pick fights on domestic issues where they have a fighting chance of winning, like a minimum wage increase.

Do you realize that I used words to describe Bush and his powers that he wouldn't understand, like "prerogative" and "intransigence?" :-D