One of the things that has hurt the current administration over the years is not its treatment of Democrats in Congress but the way it has treated members of the President's own party. There's often been a "my way or the highway" attitude emanating from the White House, and though Republicans have generally stuck with the President, that support has come at a personal cost to many members and to the party in general.

Now that Bush is facing a showdown with the Democratically controlled Congress on Iraq, he needs Republican support more than ever. By the looks of this report from Peter Baker and Shailagh Murray in the Washington Post, the President appears to understand he needs to acknowledge his supporters instead of just taking them for granted.

I also found this paragraph interesting:

Bush spent much of the closed-door meeting with House Republicans pressing an issue that many conservatives have already latched on to as a unifying force -- the pork-barrel spending, unrelated to the war, in the bill. At one point, Bush asked House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) if he could rally his troops to sustain a veto on the spending issue alone, even if Democrats stripped out language on troop withdrawals. When Boehner turned to his colleagues to ask if they would stay with Bush, they gave him a standing ovation.

I find it hard to believe that if President Bush gets a bill that doesn't have a timetable in it, he'll still veto over pork alone. Is he really going to risk the US military's ability to continue functioning to engage in a political showdown with Democrats -- all over $25 billion in pork?

After twelve years in power, seven of those under a president who never once lifted his pen to veto any of the outrageous earmarks slipped into bills in the dead of night by members of his own party, Republicans sure have picked a funny moment to grow a spine on pork.

It seems to me the smarter thing would be to pass the bill and then rail against the Democrats for attaching the pork in the first place. Bush could say something like, "when forced to make a choice, I will always put our troops first, even if that means letting Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid waste millions of taxpayer dollars on peanut storage in Georgia."

It's far better for Bush to get his bill and take whatever shots the Democrats give him than to go to the mat in a political showdown -- especially with a 33% job approval rating and a good majority of the public opposed to his policy in Iraq.