A (Lame) Duck Goes...

Tell me again how George W. Bush plans to stay relevant with his veto powers (the ones he waited for a Democratically-controlled Congress to use on).

Because I think our President has forgotten about a little thing called "override."

WASHINGTON -- The House quickly rejected George W. Bush's veto Wednesday of a $290 billion farm bill and the Senate was poised to follow suit, a stark rebuke of a president overridden only once in his two terms.

Only hours before the House's 316-108 vote, Bush had vetoed the five-year measure, saying it was too expensive and gave too much money to wealthy farmers when farm incomes are high.

The legislation includes election-year subsidies for farmers and food stamps for the poor _ spending that lawmakers could promote when they are back in their districts over the Memorial Day weekend.

The Senate could turn to the bill as soon as Wednesday night; there were expected to be enough votes to overturn the veto.

The veto was the 10th of Bush's presidency. Congress so far has overridden him once, on a water projects bill.

But in case anyone thinks that the Democrats did (and can continue to do) this on their own:

With Bush at record lows in the polls in the waning months of his term, it was fellow Republicans who joined with majority Democrat in rejecting the veto. GOP lawmakers are anxious about their own prospects less than six months from the Election Day.

That's the true sign of lame-duckness: when the president's own party member begin to go against him.