Cherry Picking

W is threatening, yet again, to veto his first bill. Of course one of the more puzzling aspects of his presidency has been the fact that he has not vetoed a single bill in his entire tenure. Sure he’s had a Republican Senate and House, but he’s often been at loggerheads with members of his own party, so what gives? I think we finally have a good answer. Charles Savage of the Boston Globe has reported on how Bush has bypassed more than 750 statutes in about 125 bills. Why veto a bill when you can cherry pick its provisions? I’d like to know who came up with this scheme and when. Was Rove sitting in his new office in the spring of 2001 and when he looked out the window and saw all the blossoms, suddenly he had a brilliant idea, or did the idea come out of the expanded war powers, or was this the plan even before Bush came into office? Maybe the Specter of an impending Senate investigation will give us some real answers, but I’m not going to hold my breath. Whatever the truth be, if Bush 43 doesn’t go down as the worst president in history, surely he will go down as the cherry-pickingest. For some people, I suspect that’s better than going down in history as the going-downed-uponiest president.