They huff and puff but don't want to blow the house down

[rodeodance]

so far it has been a lot of huffing and bush does what he wants!


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,30809-2566559,00.html


The Times January 26, 2007


They huff and puff but don't want to blow the house down

Bronwen Maddox

Less than 24 hours after President Bush asked Congress to support his new plan in Iraq, leading senators, including Republicans, approved resolutions condemning it. But that sound and fury means nothing. At least, it does not mean that the Democratic-controlled Congress is actually going to deprive Bush of the money to send his “surge” of new troops into Iraq.

There is nothing for Democrats to gain from putting their signature to any part of the Iraq policy, as they would do if they now intervened. If Bush’s plan fails, as they expect, they have everything to gain in the presidential race of 2008. If it were to succeed, only Senator John McCain, the leading Republican candidate, would benefit, not the Democrats.

The noise on Capitol Hill this week, and the votes on resolutions that may come next week, are no more than a formal but empty protest rather than a real obstruction. Democrats on Capitol Hill are capable of more self-restraint than many suspected. They are not so giddy from their victory in November that they have taken their eye off the main prize — the presidency in 2008 — for all the temptations of scoring points off a President already on the way out. The decision by two leading Republican senators this week to join Democrats in bringing resolutions against the White House plan showed that the President’s appeal in the State of the Union speech on Tuesday night won him no ground.

Senator Chuck Hagel joined his Democratic colleagues on the Foreign Relations Committee in approving a non-binding resolution opposing the surge — Bush’s plan to send 21,500 more US troops to Iraq. It will soon come to a vote on the Senate floor and may accompany a similar resolution from the Armed Services Committee, where John Warner, a Republican who was until recently its chairman, has spoken against Bush’s plan. But the key is that the resolutions are “non-binding”. They are gestures — formal and eye-catching, but not intended to provoke head-on confrontation with Bush. In theory, the President has the freedom to determine foreign policy, but in practice, both houses of Congress have ways of harassing him should they so choose.

Yet there is little sign that the Democrats have any intention of turning off the tap of money to the Iraq war effort. They would then be an easy target for anything that went wrong for the US in the conflict from now on. They would also be vulnerable to the charge of endangering military lives. ............

[Demeter]

1. Too Bad; Renovation REQUIRES Destruction

And it's better if the demolition is planned--not a catastrophic event.