It Reads

The Shrubbery read a speech, and CNN felt compelled to write about it. Their essay is titled: Bush will add more than 20,000 troops to Iraq [not exactly catchy].

Bush recognized that the progress of the war is “unacceptable to the American people — and it is unacceptable to me,” adding, “Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me.”

…snip

Emerging from their meeting with Bush about 3:15 p.m. ET, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said they felt they were not able to give input to the Bush plan.

Their meeting “was notification, not consultation,” said Pelosi.

…snip

The Republican congressional leadership is standing behind President Bush’s new plan, and faulted Democrats for not offering their own plan for victory.

…snip

A number of Republican senators — including Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon, Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio, Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas — have publicly questioned whether Bush’s plan to increase troop strength will help stabilize Iraq.

“A troop surge in Baghdad would put more American troops at risk to address a problem that is not a military problem,” Coleman said Wednesday on the Senate floor.

“It would put more American soldiers in the crosshairs of sectarian violence and create more targets. I just don’t believe this makes sense,” Coleman said.

When even Norm Coleman recognizes the problem, you know how bad things are.

There was talk before the speech about the Shrubbery admitting mistakes, but he doesn’t actually do that. It’s the standard “if there were mistakes,” which is an admission of nothing.

The Democrats don’t have a plan for victory, because victory in the common dictionary definition of of the word is not one of the options available in Iraq. Frankly from the point of view of someone who has been shot at by annoyed people, getting out alive is pretty much the most important thing at this point.

He is still refusing to talk to Iran or Syria, who might be able to help, but don’t respond well to constant threats.

He wants to spend another $16 billion that we don’t have and he is moving ahead with this before Congress has appropriated the money. Congress doesn’t respond well to threats, and, under their new rules, the Shrubbery is going to have to request a tax increase, or slash something else to pay for it. His line of credit ended on November 7^th, 2006.

Someone needs to explain to these fools that the government of the United States is based on the consent of the governed, and as such, it is a “popularity contest.” The opinions of the people do matter and have to be taken into consideration. The phrase, “government of the people, by the people, for the people,” is not just a nice bit of rhetoric.