El Presidente remembers he's supposed to be "conservative"

And resurrects the push for a Line Item Veto.

Clinton actually got the holy grail of budget politics passed back in 1996, only to have the SCOTUS toss it on constitutional grounds two years later. Seems they had a little problem with the President being able to arbitrarily change bills that had already been passed by Congress, not to mention with Congress for conferring such a power. Be that as it may, Dear Leader thinks he's found away around that particular thicket.

But White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the Bush proposal would differ from that 1996 law, which allowed the president to pencil out specific spending items only after a bill was passed by Congress.

Under the Bush proposal, the president would identify areas in a spending bill he considered wasteful and then send the package back to Congress. Congress would have 10 days to hold an up or down vote on the package.

Leaving aside the obvious likelihood of Generalissimo Bush using this as another tool to exact petty vengeance against those who cross him...any guesses on how many legislators are actually going to vote to uphold a veto knowing that their pet project might be the next one on the chopping block? Anyone think the folks on the Hill don't have a pretty long memory for such slights? Only the hopelessly naive or the abysmally ignorant could believe that home state/district self-preservation isn't going to kick in when it comes time to go on the record for pissing in the other guy's pool.

As is par for the course with this administration, we're left with two equally pathetic choices: Either the President honestly can't see that state-level politics doom this initiative before it starts, or he just doesn't care and is going ahead, anyway, to regain some of the conservative street cred he lost with his drunken sailor spending.

Moron or lip-servicing opportunist.

Which do you prefer steering the ship of state?