Think Progress, DC
Oct 19 2007
NYT Embraces White House Talking Point, Claims Bush’s Veto Proves He
Can `Still Get His Way’
Yesterday, House conservatives sustained President Bush’s SCHIP veto,
killing a bill that was overwhelmingly supported by the American
public. The White House used the occasion to assert its dominance
over the legislative branch. `We won this round on SCHIP,’ claimed
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.
Perino’s comments underscore Bush’s claim earlier this week, when he
argued that by issuing vetoes, he ensures that he is `relevant.’
`That’s one way to ensure that I’m in the process,’ he told
reporters.
The media have blindly picked up this administration talking point.
In a New York Times article today, authors Robert Pear and Sheryl Gay
Stolberg called Bush’s veto `artful’ and said it shows that he is
able to `still get his way on Capitol Hill`:
For now, the insurance vote stands as the latest example of how Mr.
Bush can still get his way on Capitol Hill. Through artful use of
veto threats and his veto pen, Mr. Bush has fended off attempts to
force a change of course in Iraq – a feat Democrats would never have
imagined when they pushed Republicans out of power a year ago. He has
twisted Democrats into knots over domestic surveillance, and forced
them to rethink a resolution condemning as genocide a century-old
massacre of Armenians.
Bush’s vetoes aren’t `artful.’ They have killed bills widely
supported by the public. They also don’t say anything about Bush’s
relevance or power. As a recent analysis in the National Journal
shows, overriding a president’s veto has historically been rare:
Any president can wield a veto pen. A more significant measure of
Bush’s power is the fact he has been unable to convince Congress to
pass his major priorities, such as immigration and Social Security.
Last month, Bush himself acknowledged that people don’t listen to him
and in January, the American public already thought that Bush was a
lame duck.
o-bush/