The Bully in the White House Beats a Retreat

While I certainly think that the accord between the Democrats and George Bush over pending trade accords may be an important landmark, I was astonished that the New York Times made it the lead story this morning. It should have highlighted the far more consequential news that George Bush has finally backed down on the biggest drama of this decade -- namely the Iraq war. This president, who has for almost five years waved the bloody shirt of 9/11 at the Democrats to get his way on Iraq, capitulated on the issue of setting benchmarks to measure progress in Iraq. The Democratic Party brought him up short because they handled him the way they should have from the beginning of his administration -- as a bully, who can be beaten by an aggressive posture of pushing back. This they demonstrated most recently in the war funding bill they sent to him with timelines attached for withdrawal from Iraq. The Democrats lost the bill to a veto, but they reflected public opinion and ultimately have now forced our errant leader to retreat. Hopefully this will be the leitmotif for the Democrats for the final twenty months of the Bush era.