Seriously. That's what Bush said today. He wants to meet with Democrats to work out an agreement over the war funding, provided that the Democrats understand that this isn't a negotiation, that Bush isn't going to change his mind, and that the Democrats will have to accept Bush's position 100%. Really, that's what he said.
From AP (since AP changed their story and made it more amenable to Bush, I'm going to quote the original AP story that gives the actual facts of what Bush said):
President Bush on Tuesday invited Democrats to discuss their standoff over a war-spending bill, but he made clear he would not change his position opposing troop withdrawals. The White House bluntly said the meeting would not be a negotiation.In other words, Bush wants Dems to report on the progress they've made in caving on their position and agreeing to Bush's. Real piece of work, that guy.
"At this meeting, the leaders in Congress can report on progress on getting an emergency spending bill to my desk," Bush said. "We can discuss the way forward on a bill that is a clean bill, a bill that funds our troops without artificial timetables for withdrawal and without handcuffing our generals on the ground. I'm hopeful we'll see some results soon from the Congress."
Oh, and you'll be glad to know that Bush got a "boost" today, at least according to AP, because our puppet in Iraq has now said that they don't need a timetable for US withdrawal to make them stand up and defend their own country rather than having our young men and women die for them. Uh huh. Kind of like asking a child if he needs rules - oh no, no rules needed, mom, you can trust me, just keep giving me that unlimited credit card and the key to the cars. For AP to call this a "boost" is beyond absurd.
