[be131]

Instead of pledging aid, Bush lectured farmers on the excessive costs of agricultural subsidies.

If Bush feels so strongly about the cost of subsidies that he's prepared to lose the Senate over it, why the H*** did he sign the massive subsidy bill?

[Luis Gonzalez]

The writer makes his point there, you can't win.

Had he pledged aid, he would have caught sh%t for spending more money, so instead, he does the conservative thing, and lectures them about the excessive cost of subsidies, and loses the farmers in the process.

Everyone has their own agenda in mind, farm subsidies cut against the grain of conservative thinking, unless it is conservatives who need the help.