Tony Snow has it exactly right. I love this president and think he will go down in history as a great man, but he is not a fiscal conservative, although he is a social conservative and both are important to me. We'll never get everything we ask for in a president. Ever.
I believe we're getting exactly what the president advertised when he ran for the office, with the exception of his strange silence this past year when he let the left tell lies about his administration and the war in Iraq and didn't defend himself. It's the Republican Congress who has really disappointed and, as Dick Armey said the other day, he is hearing from Republican volunteers that they are disgusted because there is no difference between our party and the Democrats.
I think that's oversimplifying it a little because certainly Republicans take national security seriously.
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Congress is sending those spending bills to the President. And while it's true he could veto them, it's also true that the Republican Congress should be expected to do some of the heavy lifting when it comes to the conservative agenda. Instead they have shifted the entire burden to the White House, either waiting to get on board those policies that appear popular or to run for the hills when the fight looks tough. Their performance has been abysmal and they are as vacuous as the Democrats when it comes to leadership.