Get heat for what? If nothing else, I hope to convince you that we're not going to make any meaningful difference without taking at least some heat, even if it's only of the most irrational sort.
And you have the ads accusing him of not being serious.
So let me get this straight: the Democrats who pushed for the bill are going to complain that Bush isn't seriously opposed to it? How can we expect him to get anywhere with such abject timidity? The libs will have him by the you-know-whats and will be able to drag him around anywhere they want.
The rest of you're post is off the subject, since it concerns the veto option, which he did not take, and which I wasn't talking about.
They will say or do anything to win. Lie, cheat, steal, whatever. They have a strong ally in the media. We ought not walk into every political trap that the Left sets up.
Right now, Bush has said there are "legitimate constitutional questions." That leaves Olson and Ashcroft an opening to admit that certain provisions might be troublesome, but does not give the Dems the excuse to launch full-scale attacks on them that would occur if Bush had them openly attack the law. He's not going to give them ammo, instead, he's going to screw all of `em over when he shows up in their chicken coop and takes all their eggs.
You think if Bush had blundered badly, the Dems would be celebrating all over the place. But they're quiet. They sent up bait for a veto, probably had attack ads ready for use, but Bush didn't take the bait so they wasted the money they spent producing the ads. You don't know how to play game. The President and his advisors do, and they've done pretty well, IMHO.