Bookman: Will Congress finally dare to tell Bush no?

Will Congress finally dare to tell Bush no? Jay Bookman in the AJC: "For more than four years, President Bush has controlled every aspect of the war in Iraq. For more than four years, a docile Congress has given the president every penny he has sought to fight the so-called 'war on terror' —- the total is more than $400 billion —- and it has allowed him to spend that money as he saw fit.

The results have been disastrous, as most Americans now recognize. In a Newsweek poll taken earlier this month, 69 percent of Americans said they disapprove of how the president has handled the war, and given the gross incompetence at war-fighting demonstrated by this administration, you have to wonder at the 27 percent who believe he has done well.

If this is a good performance, what on earth would a bad one look like?

Never one to be cowed by mere reality, President Bush is now insisting that Congress appropriate another $100 billion for the war, demanding that it cough up the money 'with no strings attached.' He wants the money, in other words, but he wants it with no input or interference from Congress in how it is spent.

Well, no. The answer to that demand should be no. And Congress may at last be willing to say that word to the president."