Associated Press:
President Bush on Tuesday invited Democrats to discuss their standoff over a war-spending bill, but he made clear he would not change his position opposing troop withdrawals. The White House bluntly said the meeting would not be a negotiation.
"It's time for them to get the job done, so I'm inviting congressional leaders from both parties - both political parties - to meet with me at the White House next week," Bush said in a speech to an American Legion audience in Fairfax, Va.
"At this meeting, the leaders in Congress can report on progress on getting an emergency spending bill to my desk," Bush said. "We can discuss the way forward on a bill that is a clean bill, a bill that funds our troops without artificial timetables for withdrawal and without handcuffing our generals on the ground. I'm hopeful we'll see some results soon from the Congress."
Not surprisingly, the president doesn't seem to know the definition of the word 'discuss.' The word he's looking for is 'dictate.'
Bush is kind of stuck. He can't veto the bill without personally cutting off funding for the troops. He's trying to set it on its ear and claim that dems are cutting funding, but he's got the spending he asked for. It sounds to me like the White House may have internal polling that shows his position to be a loser.
On the other hand, he can't not veto the bill. He's made too big a deal of it and switching positions now would be a major defeat.
So he wants Democrats to help him out of the corner he's painted himself into. Like I say, good luck with that.
