When I see the pork removed from the bill I will believe it. I would also like to see more vetoes of other bills loaded with pork from now on. Bush has basically taken a pass on the issue of excessive spending for 6 years. It has to stop now or 2008 will look much like 2006 in congressional races.
You won't see it removed, and its a simple reason why.
This particular bill would never get Blue Dog support without all that bribe pork Pelosi stuck in there to get the votes. These dems know damned well their constituents do not support the democrats cut and run strategy. So bascially the pork in this bill is a lot of bribery. So without this pork the bill has ZERO chance of simple majority in the house.
Bush didn't need to bring the word "pork" into his rejection, he made IMHO a very big political mistake by even mentioning the word in his veto, because his record is such a joke on that.
Veto it, veto it purely on the merits of its effect to the war in the field... Play to your strengths, not your weaknesses. Bush was doing great, until he decided to mention Pork.. now the news stories will all just be pointing out how he's never vetoed pork in his career until this bill... and make him look like a hypocrite.. mark my words... that story will be in every nightly newscast for the next week or so, every one will do an expose' on Bush's pork approvals.