Cheney squeals about pork

Speaking of Cheney's little tete-a-tete with Rush this morning, I've been noticing the White House apparently intends to spin Bush's impending veto on the spending bill on a couple of grounds. When asked about whether Bush would be seen as undercutting the troops by issuing a veto, Cheney told Rush:

No, he has been very, very firm in his insistence, Rush, that if they send him a bill with limitations on his ability to function as commander-in-chief or restrictions on the troops or with a withdrawal date that in effect would tell our enemies we're going to quit, he will veto it. He's also said the same thing if the bills are loaded up with pork on non-essential spending.

So in other words, no one tells the King what he can do with his war, or about anything. But the public impatience with the Imperial presidency appears to have filtered through the castle walls, even within the insular confines of the Oval office, so they add the pork caveat as a fail-safe measure.

One might note in passing, that it's unlikely the Republican dominated Congress submitted a single bill for passage that didn't include a slaughterhouse's worth of oinking admendments and Bush had no compunction about signing any of those on account of the add-ons. Just thought it was worth mentioning for the record.