"...My Fair Lady"

In regards to the horrific bridge collapse in Minneapolis, President Bush gave a 651-word speech. Sadly, only 212 words where really dedicated to the victims and their families. The other 67% of his speech? A blatant attack at the Congress (which has been under the control of the the Democratic Party for about 6 months).

Here's Bush's speech sans the attack:

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. I just finished a Cabinet meeting. One of the things we discussed was the terrible situation there in Minneapolis. We talked about the fact that the bridge collapsed, and that we in the federal government must respond and respond robustly to help the people there not only recover, but to make sure that lifeline of activity, that bridge, gets rebuilt as quickly as possible.

To that end, Secretary Peters is in Minneapolis, as well as Federal Highway Administrator Capka. I spoke to Governor Pawlenty and Mayor Rybak this morning. I told them that the Secretary would be there. I told them we would help with rescue efforts, but I also told them how much we are in prayer for those who suffered. And I thank my fellow citizens for holding up those who are suffering right now in prayer.

I want to thank OMB Director Rob Portman for his hard work in developing this plan. This was Rob's last Cabinet meeting. Laura and I wish him and his family well. And I call on the Senate to confirm his successor, Jim Nussle, so we can work together to keep our government running, to keep our economy growing, and to keep our nation strong.

Thank you for your time.

Sounds very vanilla, right? And it's pretty much the story the TV media ran with. But then you see the "meat of his speech, in which he blames the Congress for going on vacation:

By the end of this week, members are going to be leaving for their month-long August recess. And by the time they will return, there will be less than a month before the end of the fiscal year on September the 30th, and yet they haven't passed one of the 12 spending bills that they're required to pass.

And he also claims that Democrats in Congress is spending way to much money:

The budget I've sent to Congress fully funds America's priorities. It increases discretionary spending by 6.9 percent. My Cabinet Secretaries assure me that this is adequate to meet the needs of our nation.

Unfortunately, Democratic leaders in Congress want to spend far more. Their budget calls for nearly $22 billion more in discretionary spending next year alone. These leaders have tried to downplay that figure. Yesterday one called this increase -- and I quote -- "a very small difference" from what I proposed. Only in Washington can $22 billion be called a very small difference. And that difference will keep getting bigger. Over the next five years it will total nearly $205 billion in additional discretionary spending. That $205 billion averages out to about $112 million per day, $4.7 million per hour, $78,000 per minute.

Put another way, that's about $1,300 in higher spending every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every year for the next five years. That's a lot of money -- even for career politicians in Washington. In fact, at that pace, Democrats in Congress would have spent an extra $300,000 since I began these remarks.

Funny; as I write this blog the Iraq "war" is costing Minneapolis $675,699,600. I'm pretty sure that they could have used some of that money for bridge repair. If only the President and his war supporters would stop trying to block legislation that would bring things to a conclusion.

Sometimes I wonder: was this the true grand plan of bin Laden and his followers? To get this country so wrapped up in "fighting them over there" that we ignore our own people here? That we dismiss fixing roads and bridges and power lines and levees? That we would send people who normally are the first responders to national disasters away, making the clean-up and rescue efforts that much harder to accomplish? In short: to destroy us from within?