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Originally posted by bilmore
I can't tell you how unintentionally funny this is.
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And there's a good reason for that.
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It's all in the phrasing, isn't it? You mean when the Dems tried to hold up our desperately needed Homeland Security by throwing in a provision growing their union voter base?
(They're all somebody's tools, aren't they? Why is it "politicizing" only when someone else does it?)
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Of course there were differences in opinion about policy issues like this one. That's what politics are about. But to anyone whose first language is English, "bipartisan" means working with the other side in a spirit of compromise to bridge differences. Bush's version of word means do what you want to do, tell the other side to fuck off, and hope that you pick up a couple of Dems who agree with you on the policy.
I don't think I used the word "politicizing" so I'll let you look in the dictionary for that one.
It is now clear to you, me, and the rock that you were under that Bush preferred to have no bill passed and a campaign issue to use against the Democrats. That being the case, you can't really pretend that Bush was taking the high road until mean Democrats made things partisan.
What was particularly odious about Bush's tactics is the way he took a dispute about whether to roll back civil-service protections and made it about the war on terror. Other presidents, in wartime, have taken pains to take a truly bipartisan approach. For example, FDR's Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, was a prominent Republican. Bush went the other way -- using the war to advance the GOP's interests.
