Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says President Bush is as isolated as Richard Nixon during Watergate.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) compared President Bush to former President Nixon today, suggesting Bush is “as isolated” now over the Iraq war as Nixon was during the Watergate scandal, reports Politico’s Carrie Budoff.

Reid was responding to questions over what Senate Democrats will do if Bush, as promised, vetoes the Iraq funding bill being crafted by Congress. Bush has said he will block the legislation from becoming law because both the House and Senate versions of the legislation include withdrawal timetables for pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq.

Bush also objects to $20 billion-plus in “pork” spending programs that Democrats have included in the bill, although Democratic leaders defend the funding as need emergency spending for Hurricane Katrina victims, child health programs, and veteran care.

Bush has invited Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to come to the White House next week to negotiate on a “clean” Iraq funding bill with no withdrawal language or pork spending, but Reid has said the president should instead come to Capitol Hill this Friday to meet with lawmakers.

If the president is serious, and not as isolated as people think he is, maybe he will take us up on it,” Reid said of his offer to meet with Bush on Capitol Hill. Reid and Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) sent a letter to Bush today repeating the invitation, which Democrats first raised in late March.

“The president is as isolated, I believe, on the Iraq issue as Richard Nixon was when he was hunkered down in the White House.”

When asked whether he would accept a funding bill with political benchmarks for the Iraqi government but no withdrawal language, Reid said he would insist on specified deadlines for redeployment and withdrawal from Iraq because both the House and Senate have approved such requirements.

Both the House and Senate have approved such requirements with 2 Republicans providing the margin in the House and a close vote in the Senate. Neither looks like they can override Bush’s veto, so my thinking is some negotiations are going to have to take place, but it will not include a date for withdrawal.

And, though Mr. Reid may have forgotten, I haven’t. President Bush is not hunkered down in the Oval Office or Rose Garden the way Nixon was. He’s going out in public and making a case for his position, hoping it will be fairly reported.

Written by ~J~

3 Responses to “Mmmm, Not So”

1. Blue Steel says:

   April 12, 2007 at 8:07 pm

   The Dems are playing hardball now, trying to crank up the pressure on the White House. That, and last week Reid said a lot of those pork spending projects had to be promised to bribe reluctant Democratic Senators to vote to pass the bill with the Iraq timeline.

   Sure, the spending they squeeked into the war supplemental bill doesn’t really belong there. They could just as easily have put farm subsidies in a different spending bill, but this is their strategy.

   Politics is a dirty business, and anyone who thinks the Democrats don’t also get their hands dirty with it is a hopeless romantic.

   I say good luck to the Dems, but in a perfect world these kinds of games with lives and money wouldn’t be necessary.
2. ~J~ says:

   April 12, 2007 at 10:28 pm

   You said a mouthful there, Blue Steel! I think the president knows how to play hardball too. At least I hope he does.>-
3. smh10 says:

   April 13, 2007 at 2:45 pm

   First it was Quagmire..then the VietNam card was played. That didn’t stick so then it was Civil War, still heard occasionally but didn’t make the big time so now let’s go back to Watergate.

   This is how their defense always goes. When we don’t have a real plan or are afraid of a real plan, head to the microphone and make up something that sounds good. Incidentally by their I mean both sides of the aisle..honestly I taught 3 year olds who had more sense.