Bush Plays Politics With National Guard by Bill Press

[jbfam4]

Bush Plays Politics With National Guard by Bill Press
May 18, 2006 http://billpress.com/columns.html



It’s unfair to members of the Guard because they’ve done such an outstanding job in Iraq. Many of them have been there for years, some called back for two or three tours of duty. They deserve a break. These brave men and women didn’t sign up to be full-time military. They signed up to help out, temporarily, when needed. And now, after such heroic service in Iraq, they deserve to get back to their jobs, communities and families — and not forced to play Border Patrol.


The worst part about George Bush’s National Guard plan is when and why he proposed it. Remember, he did nothing about illegal immigration as governor of Texas — except to wave the Mexican flag at rallies and sing the Star-Spangled Banner in Spanish. And he’s done nothing about the problem for the last six years. There are fewer border agents, far fewer employer sanctions, and millions more illegal immigrants today than when Bill Clinton was president.

Nor was the National Guard part of Bush’s original immigration reform plan. He only added it, at the last minute, to appease conservatives outraged over what they considered his soft approach to the problem. Karl Rove convinced Bush that by throwing conservatives a bone or two — the National Guard and 370 miles of fence — he could win their support for his guest worker program and track to citizenship for those in the country illegally at least five years. The Rove-Bush ploy probably won’t work. Conservatives aren’t that stupid. But it’s a cheap political trick nonetheless.

Of course, this is the second time George W. Bush has used the National Guard for shameless purposes: first, to get out of going to Vietnam; now, to get out of political hot water. Yet Bush still had the gall to conclude his Oval Office speech on immigration by warning that nobody should try to “exploit the issue of illegal immigration for political gain."

If only he practiced what he preached.

[rodeodance]

1. of course it is politics=but Bush has no shame.

[existentialist]

2. Actually it is at least the third time Bush has used the National

Guard for shameless purposes.

I believe their use in the war in Iraq easily qualifies on that point too--that they are not the only ones being used shamelessly notwithstanding.

I think I could argue that the way they were used after Katrina was pretty shameless too.

[pretzel4gore]

3. the ones who matter like it...

when someone's been abused like...well like the american people (in the main) they seem to acquire a liking for both the abuse and the abuser, going so far as to threaten hell on anyone who tries to call the bastards off....
it's fricking disgraceful: these guys got families who depend on a healthy public service (and honest civil service/government) yet they hate the left, the dems, they giggle at mass murder

[Cha]

4. Good one, Bill Press!

bush is such a fucking little dic-tator.