I am extremely disappointed in the President's decision. It won't make me not vote for him (I am not looking to elect the Democrats who are even worse), but this was a bright line issue for me. I may vote for him, but I sure as heck won't be working for him actively or going out of my way to sell him to anyone.
I am further to the right than Bush; I knew this all along. However, based on his track record, I thought I could trust him at his word. This made it easier for me to accept where he was to the left of me- I could evaluate his position and decide if it was too much for me to accept.
But now, I know that his word doesn't have the sanctity that I expected. When he says that he will defend the constitution and doesn't, how can I expect him to know a strict constructionist when it comes time to nominate one? When he says he is pro-life but accepts some pragmatic exceptions, how can I buy that his goals are really the same as mine but just the tactics are a little more incremental? The fact is, this makes me question highly what I thought I knew about the guy.
And you know I am not some knee jerk anti-Bush person. But if the pollsters come calling, he won't be getting a vote of approval from the Daly household. I can't reward him for being just another politician.
Shortly after being sworn in, the story was floated about how when Bush met with Daschle early in his term, he told Tiny Tom "just don't lie to me". Everyone whooped it up when hearing about it. It felt good to think that the truth mattered again, and that a gentleman's word was considered by him to be a binding contract.
Bush, while campaigning, said to me, as a citizen, that he would veto this legislation. Bush laid out four criteria which he said a CFR bill would have to meet in order to pass his judgemental muster. This bill violates each of those criteria. And now he is going to sign it.
His freaking father's fate obviously did not teach George the lesson I thought was the first one he should have learned: "just don't lie to me", the base of your support.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
The speech issue was the thing with me. I am unsure what is going on, although I remain hopeful that we will receive an explanation today. I do think the veiled threats about holding up the Defense budget may have entered into it. I don't know what else to think, so I am not going out on a limb one way or another. (I suppose that sounds moderate..LOL!)
I do think Texasforever made some good points, but I am leary of risking this on the decisioin of the court, even though I am pretty sure they would strike it down.
Anyway, I understand and can appreciate your feelings. My counsel would be to wait and see...sometimes there are things going on we just don't know about. But I am disappointed as well.
The Dems were able to make Bush choose between a campaign promise and the troops. Bush, like any wartime Commander-in-Chief should, chose the troops.
I say we spread that rumor out there, whether it's true or not. It'll be no different than the Mediscare ads. If that's what we gotta do, that's what we gotta do.