Roadblock Blog

You Ain’t Gotta Be In Congress To Be A Roadblock Republican

The desire to obstruct - let's call it the Roadblock Imperative - runs deep in the Republican Party. Our original Roadblockers were all Senators, but let's clear the way for the Roadblock-in-Chief, the goalie of the Republican Party (to mix metaphors), jealously guarding the net so no actual accomplishments for the American people get through. Yes, I'm talking about George W. Bush. He kept his veto pen in a forgotten corner of the closet, unused next to his copy of the Constitution, when the Republicans were busy running up the biggest deficits in the history of the land while they built Bridges to Nowhere (literally and figuratively). But now that Democrats have scratched and clawed through the Roadblocks in Congress, Bush has found his veto pen, dusted it off, and asked Cheney how to spell "veto":

A budget dispute erupted into a full-scale battle Tuesday as President Bush vetoed the Democrats' top-priority domestic spending bill and the party's Senate leader threatened to withhold war funding if the president does not agree to pull out of Iraq. [...]

The exchange encapsulated a broader confrontation over national priorities, a battle both sides appear eager to wage heading into an election year. As Bush demands full funding for the war, he signaled that Tuesday's action will be the first of a cascade of vetoes killing other spending bills, casting himself as a deficit hawk blocking a tax-and-spend Congress. Democrats are seeking to paint Bush as a reckless leader who spent the nation deep into debt through failed war policies while ignoring schools, medical research and other vital areas.

Classic reporting: Bush seeks to cast himself one way, while Democrats try to paint him another. But, personally, I try to look at something I like to call "reality" and "recent history" when looking at this. Bush has run up record deficits, so he can't claim to be a "deficit hawk" in this little corner of reality. While he *did* spend the nation deep into debt while ignoring vital areas of our economy. So, in this case, it's not a case of he said-they said. It's a case of he lies-they don't. Clear as day.

The entire first six years of his Presidency was a Bridge to Nowhere, endless careening ahead to nothingness. Now that we're actually trying to get headed down a different road ... you know what I'm going to say here ... Roadblock!

Maddening.