Bush goes ape**** on his own.

[the_real_38]

from cnn.com at :

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/10/15/sprj.nilaw.bush.congress.iraq/index.html

<snip>

President Bush cajoled GOP senators this week in a meeting on his Iraq spending request, showing what one senator said was the most passion the president has exhibited since just after the September 11 terror attacks.

But for the most part, senators who want part of the $20 billion Iraq reconstruction money to be a loan said Bush did not persuade them to go along with his argument Tuesday that all of it should be a straight grant.

certainly respect his viewpoint, but I did not find the arguments put forward at the meeting to be persuasive."

Collins said the president was very intense, and joked that "I probably won't be asked back anytime soon."

Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, said, "Iraq has the capacity to pay for itself."

And Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine issued a press release shortly after the meeting broke up saying, "In the long run, the loans will help Iraq make its own way to a vibrant, free and prosperous future."

Two Republican senators who asked not to be named said the president's comments were so harshly worded that they alienated some of those he was trying to win over.
At the same time, Collins and her co-sponsor, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, have been talking to Democrats Ben Nelson, D-Nebraska, and Evan Bayh, D-Indiana, about a bipartisan amendment to make some of the reconstruction money a loan.

"The president was very forceful and condescending," one senator said. "This is old-style politics, and it made me mad."

"They were very upset," said the other senator. On the question of grants versus loans, this senator said Bush told the group, "I'm not going to debate it," as senators started asking questions.

</snip>

Dissension in the ranks - what do you think?

[Cat Atomic]

1. The Uniter really puts his foot down when it comes to

corporate welfare, doesn't he? GIMMEE GIMMEE GIMMEE!

[Rose Siding]

2. That's Voinovich's quote!

I don't know how I know :( but I heard a report on it some time today. He made the "old time politics" remark.

And now he runs from it, the booger!

[WillyBrandt]

3. Come to the Light Side, moderate Republicans!

We promise to hug you and love you in this Party. Pull a Jeffords, except have a "D" instead of an "I" by your name.

I promise to donate to every GOP Senator who switches parties. Anyway, you're mostly in Democratic states, so your power will be secure.

C'mon!

[Punkingal]

4. Sounds like he threw a tantrum......

doesn't it?:7

[frank frankly]

5. I think it is great

and I think Gephardt shit the bed

[proud patriot]

6. Look out he's going to blow

hee hee hee hee :evilgrin:

[neuvocat]

7. Then you've got Gephardt

Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Missouri, said he supports Bush's entire $87 billion supplemental request, which includes the $20 billion, calling it "the only responsible course of action."

====


He really needs to just get out of politics. This is his career and he sucks at it.

[the_real_38]

9. Yeah, I edited that out for the sake of brevity ...

... (and kind of botched the job) - But I don't know where his head is on that. It's just corporate payout.

[ixion]

8. not going to debate it....

well, why don't you just throw a temper tantrum, Boy King. This is one of the things that infuriates me most about these neocon sleazebags: the arrogant condescending attitude, the 'I-am-king-and-you-are-shit' attitude. I sincerely hope it comes back to bite him in the a**.

[Octafish]

10. All hail King George!

Master of the Monkeyverse

[Catch22Dem]

11. What's the plastic for?

So he doesn't pee on the rug?

[havocmom]

12. the plastic, ah yes...

Ever sit and just watch the chimps in a zoo? Stuff get flung.

Sounds like dim son may be in need of padding on the walls to go with the plastic on the floor. He is really taking this "I'm in charge" thing seriously. Too bad he never learned that our form of government is not run like a coporate boardroom. He can't waltz in, order people around and fire those who don't jump fast enough. As he tries this more and more, the results will be fun to watch. We may have to add 'China Syndrome' to his list of nick names cuz he's heading for a major meltdown.

[BeFree]

13. New American Century?

Full of Iraqi Welfare Queens?

Wonder why * was so passionate? This is big money and He has a passion for big money. That and signing death warrants.

[notadmblnd]

14. I was just listening to th edems on C-SPAN

they're debating the 87bln in the appropriations cmte. One Represenative said that 15 million was requestd for Halliburton to get a cement factory up and running in Iraq and that an Army guy gave the contract to the Iraqis' the cost? a whopping 80,000. Now I ask, just what was Halliburton going to to with the other $14,920,000.00?

[Paschall]

16. The other $14,920,000.00?

You can be sure a big chunk of it would find its way into GOP campaign coffers.

This is something people don't connect immediately. We think "corporate welfare" and huge CEO salaries and perks. But "corporate welfare" is coopting the democratic process in the most essential way, because it means shuttling money from the Treasury into the bank accounts of political parties.

I prefer simply to call it political graft. Can you say "Robber Barons?"

[leesa]

15. Those pieces of garbage. They invade a defenseless country,

abiding the UN resolution, and minding its own business, and Iraq should pay for the damage the US illegally and immorally caused. These people are completely without ethics.

[KharmaTrain]

17. Wasn't It Repugnicans Who Said...

"Give a man a fish, and you give him a meal, give the man a fishing rod and you give him a livlihood".

Ooops...sorry, wrong Repugnican party. My mistake!

[Unknown Known]

18. "I probably won't be asked back anytime soon."

Yeah and don't let the door hit you on the way out, asshole:mad:

[cliss]

19. heh heh 'Iraq has the capacity to pay for itself'

I love that line. They've been using it for months. Wolfowitz was the first to say that 'they are sitting on an ocean of oil', and it will pay for itself. It's true that the oil is worth a lot of money. Try $$1 Trillion $$.

HOWEVER, they forgot that there are 22 million people sitting on top of it. Short of blasting these people to Kingdom Come, these folks are going to object to having their oil taken away from them.

Also, there are many more muslims in the Middle East who are deeply outraged by what they are seeing. There are over 1 billion muslims in the world. Compare that to the US. They outnumber americans 4 to 1.

[KharmaTrain]

20. We Are Truly Alone

This regime has alienated virtually every American ally from that Japanese trawler/submarine junket early on to "Old Europe" to the entire Moslem world. The arrogance of this regime is coming back home in spades.

And yes, the problem is people aren't connecting that a vast chunk of this $87 Billion won't go to either "rebuilding" Iraq or to the troops, but to hefty no-bid government contracts...a virtual corporate welfare pigfest with ZERO oversight.

That's where the Democrats are failing to take this argument in a way people can understand. It's bad enough that we need to set up Zip Codes in Baghdad (wanna bet they already exist), while seniors wait months for health care or schools can't afford toilet paper or our own soldiers can't get air conditioners and kevlar vests. It's such a scam and it's not being shown where ALL this money is going.

The good side is that this regime continues to dig itself into scandals and messes it'll never get itself out of...but at what cost to our treasures and freedoms?