Bush: Gloating His Way to Defeat on Iraq Funding?

THE SWAGGER IS BACK. Today, the Bush administration baited the Democratic leadership by inviting them to the White House but telling them in advance that the administration would engage in no negotiation and no compromise on Iraq funding legislation. Here's Dana Perino, the interim press secretary smugly announcing the disingenuous invitation.

President Bush himself added that he was inviting the Democrats to the White House so they can cave into him on deadlines on troops withdrawals. In Bushspeak, this is discussing
"the way forward on a bill that is a clean bill — a bill that funds our troops without artificial timetables for withdrawal, and without handcuffing our generals on the ground."

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES? Barack Obama and Carl Levin have already announced that the Senate Democrats would rather give in to Bush than "play chicken" with funding for American soldiers. But I'm betting that Democratic Senators become a little less committed to avoiding a showdown every time Bush and his spokespeople gloat about cramming " a clean bill" without "artificial deadlines" down their whiny little throats. Who knows? Maybe Bush is even trying to precipitate a showdown that he thinks he can win in the attempt to reverse his political fortunes.

NUMBERS TALK. If the Democrats decide not to cave after Bush vetoes, the issue is going to come down to poll numbers. If 60% of the public continues to support withdrawal deadlines through a President v Congress showdown, Bush will gradually lose Republican support because the GOP really would like to avoid a landslide in 2008. That means the Congressional Democrats will win and Bush will be the lamest of lame ducks.

I'm not sure that a Bush victory would be so devastating for the Democrats though. Certainly losing public support on the war would be a big defeat, but the Bush administration is suffering death through a thousand little cuts in the fired prosecutors scandal, the Walter Reed scandal, the failure of the war and public hostility to the administration. Even if the Bush administration forced Pelosi and Reid to cave, all the deadly little cuts would start again the next day.

The Democrats have a lot to gain in the sense that they can bring this miserable war to an end. They should take the risk.