qotd

"I'm not trashing your book, I'm trashing your philosophy of life" - John Stewart to Chris Matthews.

veto the wrong thing in a vain effort to veto the wrong thing

The Questionable Authority : President vetoes job protection for families of injured soldiers.:

The president did veto the two acts that I mentioned today ["The Support for Injured Servicemembers Act" and  "The Military Family Job Protection Act"] , because both of those acts were contained within the same bill that included the extension to the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) that he vetoed.

In other words, it would be wrong for me to paint the President as a man who cruelly and heartlessly vetoed laws that would have protected the jobs of people need time off when a family member is injured or wounded in the line of duty. He's just a man who cruelly and heartlessly vetoed a law that would have extended health care to millions of uninsured children.

Now, I'm sure the Dems put those two acts into the final bill, riders on the storm of "children without healthcare", strictly in the vain hopes that 1) the President might not actually veto the act, or 2) that the public outcry (since this is a huge "support the troops" pair of acts in a way that actually does something for them) would lead to a public condemnation of any Republicans who vote against overriding said veto.

But believing 1 was foolish, and as for 2?  Well, this country has been silent far too long to the point where I don't know if it will ever really speak again...

Personally, I guess the Republicans don't really care about an override on this issue because they know they can get the "support the troops" acts attached to some other bill with a guarantee of passage where in spite of all their bluster, the Dems won't actually fight it in the vote where it counts...like another Iraq War funding bill that also immunizes more criminals from prosecution.