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Pelosi tells Bush to ‘calm down threats’ |
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By Jonathan E. Kaplan
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Posted: 03/28/07 07:37 PM [ET] |
Heading toward a potential confrontation over how to pay for the war in Iraq and whether to end U.S. involvement by a certain date, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told President Bush yesterday to “calm down with the threats,” and twice urged him to “take a deep breath.”
Bush has threatened to veto the House and Senate versions of the Iraq war supplemental spending bill, which include benchmarks and a 2008 withdrawal plan. If lawmakers cannot pass a bill with the president’s signature, Republicans argue, it will lead to a shutdown of the Pentagon, effectively denying funding to troops in Iraq.
“If Congress fails to pass a bill to fund our troops on the front lines, the American people will know who to hold responsible,” Bush said yesterday.
Since Democrats took control of the House and Senate in January, Bush has signaled his willingness to cooperate with Democrats on a range of issues — except Iraq and letting his advisors testify under oath about the U.S. attorneys scandal. Now, for the first time, Bush and congressional Democrats could be on a collision course that could lead to a political scenario like the 1995 government shutdown.
Seeking to put Democrats on the defensive, Bush has lashed out twice since last Friday.
Sensing an opportunity and a challenge, Pelosi appeared to offer an olive branch and threat in the same statement.
“On this very important matter, I would extend a hand of friendship to the president,” she told reporters. She added that Bush should, “Calm down with the threats …There is a new Congress in town …We respect your constitutional role, we want you to respect ours.”
Lawmakers from both parties were thinking about a post-vetoed spending bill political strategy and wondering how a “Pentagon shutdown” would play out politically.
Pelosi and Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told reporters yesterday that their party would “cross that bridge when they get to it.” But other Democrats were confident that they had the public opinion on their side.
Noting that Senate Republicans did not move to strip the accountability standards from the Senate bill, Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) said he saw an area of Republican weakness.
“We’re going to drive a truck through their soft-spot,” he said.
Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said, “No way the administration is going to get its way.”
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) called on Bush to “drop his tired rhetoric.”
Meanwhile, congressional Republicans seemed to welcome a showdown between Bush and congressional Democrats.
“What’s right is right and wrong is wrong — what’s [Bush] got to lose?” asked Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio). “[A showdown] is fine with me.”
Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Fla.), the GOP conference chairman, said, “The president is on very strong ground to refuse to let the Congress second guess decisions of commanders on the ground and use them as oxen to carry a wagon load of pork across the president’s desk.”
He added, “I hope [the conference committee] acts quickly and don’t burn the clock down. But the president has the right to insist on a clean funding bill for those who are in harm’s way.”
In 1995, President Clinton refused to sign GOP-passed appropriations bills and House Republicans refused to negotiate. The government shut down twice. Republicans eventually blinked after the public sided with a down-but-not-out Clinton, who recovered politically and went on to win the 1996 election.
Whether Bush could rebound is uncertain. His poll numbers have hovered around 30 percent approval for months, and there has been little good news for him throughout his second term.
There are risks for Democrats, too, even if they think that Bush has little credibility.
“Democrats have to be careful not to shut down the Pentagon or force some unforeseen consequences because the price they’re going to pay is to make the war their war as opposed to Bush’s war,” said former Rep. Leon Panetta (D-Calif.), Clinton’s chief of staff during the government shutdowns.
“On the next round, make sure you have broad Republican support, whatever you do,” he added.
Meanwhile, Pelosi and Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced yesterday that they would create a National Security Advisory Group to study the U.S. national security since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
House and Senate Democrats have challenged the president in a way the country has not seen since 1973. At that time, Congress passed the War Powers Act, which restricted the president’s ability to wage war without Congress’s permission. President Nixon vetoed the bill, but Congress overrode it. |
