Bush the Fiscal Conservative?

"Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), who has said that any Iraq legislation should ensure troop withdrawals, gave no assurance yesterday that he would give the bill a Senate vote."

David M. Herszenhorn writes in the New York Times: "Three prominent Congressional Democrats on Tuesday sought to step up criticism of the White House over the rising cost of the Iraq war. The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee said that he would block President Bush's request for nearly $200 billion in supplemental financing for war operations, and that the government should levy a war surtax to cover costs.

"But the effort seemed to fizzle as Democratic leaders reacted coolly to the ideas. Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California issued a statement opposing the war tax, and Senate Democrats continued work on a defense appropriations bill that would assure sufficient funds to keep war operations going. Republicans also quickly hit back, accusing Democrats of trying to raise taxes at every opportunity. . . .

"The White House press secretary, Dana Perino, dismissed the idea of a war tax .

"'We've always known that Democrats seem to revert to type, and they are willing to raise taxes on just about anything,' she said."

Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Leslie H. Gelb write in a Washington Post op-ed: "The Bush administration and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki greeted last week's Senate vote on Iraq policy -- based on a plan we proposed in 2006 -- with misrepresentations and untruths. Seventy-five senators, including 26 Republicans, voted to promote a political settlement based on decentralized power-sharing. It was a life raft for an Iraq policy that is adrift.

"Instead, Maliki and the administration -- through our embassy in Baghdad -- distorted the Biden-Brownback amendment beyond recognition, charging that we seek to 'partition or divide Iraq by intimidation, force or other means.'

"We want to set the record straight. If the United States can't put this federalism idea on track, we will have no chance for a political settlement in Iraq and, without that, no chance for leaving Iraq without leaving chaos behind."

Among Biden and Gelb's arguments: "The Bush administration's quixotic alternative has been to promote a strong central government in Baghdad. That central government doesn't function; it is corrupt and widely regarded as irrelevant. It has not produced political reconciliation -- and there is no evidence it will."

'Groundhog Day' at the White House

The Associated Press reports: "President Bush's hour-long meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Tuesday yielded familiar White House assurances that Iraq's leaders are making progress on unifying their country. The session did not, however, add any clarity about when that may happen. . . .

"Bush and Talabani did not make comments or take questions from reporters."

Here's Perino trying to make the best of it at yesterday's briefing: