Bush Gets Outraged

Morton M. Kondracke writes in Roll Call (subscription required): "Bush may be a lame duck. And he showed he knows that his credibility is low. He said, 'People listen to Petraeus, not to me.' Still, like Frank Sinatra in what became his signature song, Bush seems determined to go out doing it 'My Way.'"

Kondracke's description of Bush's thoughts about children's health insurance got his piece touted in the White House press office's morning e-mail to the press corps -- but someone got the URL more than a little wrong. Anyone who clicked on the White-House provided link instead got an ESPN story on the Yankees victory over the Orioles last night.

All You Need Is Love

In yet another post on the Corner, Lopez writes: "Asked what traits people should look for in choosing a President, George Bush responded immediately: 'Be comfortable with your family. Work hard to make sure there is love in the White House.'"

What did Bush mean by that? "The buzz coming out of the West Wing this afternoon was: 'Did the president just rule out Rudy Giuliani for president?'," Lopez writes, noting that Giuliani doesn't even speak to his children anymore.

Jonah Goldberg responds on the Corner: "I'm with Bush on the principles-are-important stuff. But this 'love' stuff is an awfully gooey standard for people to run too far down field with."

And consider, Goldberg writes, that President Reagan's "relationship with his kids was not off the charts in the 'fill the White House with love' department. . . .

"The real problem with statements like this -- when released to the public -- is they make conservatives sound otherworldly and almost bizarre in their priorities. Character matters, a lot. But come on."

Sticking With the President

David M. Herszenhorn and Carl Hulse write in the New York Times: "A proposal that Democrats put forward as their best chance of changing the course of the Iraq war died on the Senate floor on Wednesday, as Republicans stood firmly with President Bush.

"With other war initiatives seemingly headed for the same fate, Senate Democrats, who only two weeks ago proclaimed September to be the month for shifting course in Iraq, conceded that they had little chance of success. . . .

"'The Republican leadership and the White House is getting them all to march in line,' said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, who ranks third in the party leadership. 'But it is marching further and further away from where America is. We just keep at it. It's all we can do.'"

Shailagh Murray and Jonathan Weisman write in The Washington Post: "The vote offered the most vivid evidence yet that the Bush administration still controls Iraq war policy, despite months of congressional debate, the war's persistent unpopularity and a summer-long effort by activists to pressure Republicans. Unless other options with broad appeal emerge soon -- a prospect both parties now say is unlikely -- Bush's plan to keep most troops in Iraq through next summer will remain intact.

"'Our Republican colleagues are more interested in protecting our president than our troops,' Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said moments before the vote, when defeat appeared certain. 'This is Bush's war. Don't make it also the Republican senators' war.'"