Obey Lectures Bush

During remarks at the University of Wisconsin-Marshfield Wednesday, House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) delivered a pointed lecture for President Bush about the congressional spending process and how he is no longer dealing with a "rubber stamp" Congress.

It reminds me of his rant to an anti-war protestor during the darkest days of his negotiations over the supplemental spending bill to the fund the war - only this time the intended recipient is the president. This is a good read. Obey does annoyed as well as anyone:

"The President is crying crocodile tears about the fact that the Congress has not yet passed his take-it-or-leave-it spending request for the Iraq war.  The President said we left Washington without finishing our work, complaining that it has taken us 57 days to process his 'my way or no way' request.

"Let me remind the President that last year, the Republican Congress took 118 days to pass his supplemental request.

"Further, let me remind the President that his Republican party in Congress left Washington for the year without finishing their work on the entire $463.5 billion domestic budget.  If we had not had to spend the first month of this new session finishing the work they should have done last year, we might have had more time to turn to the President's 'my way or no way' request, but we first had to clean up their last year's leftovers.     

"The President needs to stop his huffing and puffing and recognize that he is no longer dealing with a rubber stamp Congress.  There must be compromise.  We have already adjusted our proposal by giving him a waiver on troop readiness.  When are we going to hear any talk of reasonable compromise from him?

"As usual the President is trying to govern by dividing rather than uniting.  That is why his Presidency is in such disarray.  When will he ever learn? 

"The President is simply thrashing out as a diversionary tactic to obscure the fact that he has no viable policy in Iraq or in the entire Middle East for that matter.  We need to come together to fashion such a policy."