Why So Defensive?

"In fact, the public believes the opposite -- that Bush isn't trying."

Ed Henry reports on CNN: "As the political stakes grow higher, the White House seems to be trying to lower expectations, prepare consumers for the worst, calling this a crisis, and also saying the president basically has limited opportunities to deal with this.

"Nevertheless, the White House is eager to get the president out there to show that he is sort of rolling up his sleeves, working with Congress, trying to find some sort of a solution. As you noted, today he sat down once again, just as he did last week, a bipartisan group of senators, trying to work through this issues. . . .

"Now, after the meeting, a parade of senators in both parties came to the microphones here at the White House and proclaimed it was a very good meting, constructive meeting, et cetera. But they all admitted that there really was no breakthrough at all, that they did not have any new policy initiatives from the president, and also that they did not get anywhere with any of the initiatives already on the table."

Veto Watch

Carl Hulse writes in the New York Times: "President Bush prodded Congress over tax cuts on Wednesday and renewed his threat to veto a bill that would pay for the Iraq war and Gulf Coast recovery if the Senate measure's price tag was too high.

"Even as the president issued his warning, lawmakers added special requests to the bill, ratcheting up its cost to $109 billion, well over Mr. Bush's ceiling of $92.2 billion for the war and hurricane recovery, with an additional $2.3 billion to prepare for a flu pandemic."

Passing On Problems

You'll often hear Bush saying something along these lines: "The American people did not place us in office to pass on problems to future generations and future Presidents and future Congresses."

But as Jonathan Weisman writes in The Washington Post: "With this week's hard-fought agreement on a $70 billion tax-cut extension, President Bush and congressional Republicans have effectively set a date for a fiscal day of reckoning for the next president and a future Congress: Jan. 1, 2011. . . .

"At that moment, politicians would face a choice: Either allow taxes to rise suddenly and sharply on everyone who pays income taxes, is married, has children, holds stocks and bonds, or expects a large inheritance, or impose mounting budget deficits on the government far into the future, according to projections by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office."

Moussaoui Verdict Reaction

Terence Hunt writes for the Associated Press: "President Bush said Wednesday a federal jury that spared the life of al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui did 'something that he evidently wasn't willing to do for innocent American citizens.'

"Bush declined to say whether he was satisfied with the jury's decision to reject the death penalty in favor of a sentence of life imprisonment. The government had sought the death penalty.

"The president commented on the case during a brief question and answer session in the Oval Office. He also issued a written statement in which he said the verdict 'represents the end of this case but not an end to the fight against terror.' "