Reid And Reed Respond To Bush

During a presidential speech on Tuesday before American Legion Post 177 in Fairfax, Virginia, George W. Bush mouthed a whole bunch of empty words, including this whopper:

"We are at war. It is irresponsible for the Democratic leadership in Congress to delay for months on end while our troops in combat are waiting for the funds they need to succeed."

We're accustomed to Bush misleading the American people and this was just another instance as he accuses the Democrats of delaying on evaluating his supplemental request "for months on end" and yet he had no problems with it taking longer under the previous, Republican Congress -- it took Republicans 4 months to pass Iraq funding last year and three months in 2005.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) held a joint press conference after Bush's babbling yesterday to clear the fog.

Here's Jack Reed:

"We're committed to supporting out troops and we believe the best way to support our troops is to have a mission that is in the best interest of the United States, one that can fully resourced and one that will lead to more stability in that region.

"What we're proposing in the appropriations bill is a refocus and a change in mission -- to counterterrorism, to training Iraqi security forces to protecting our forces, emphasizing political and diplomatic activities that are necessary for the success and the stabilization of Iraq."

And Majority Leader Harry Reid:

"Now because they're mired in this intractable civil war, we're not doing all that we can to fight a more effective war on terror. We have to change course and turn our attention back to the war on al-Qaeda and their allies. We must fight a more effective war on terror -- that's what Congress is demanding.

"In 120 days, what we need to do is change the direction of what's going on in Iraq.

"The president is now having to deal with a Congress. He's never had to do that before. The president in the past, he has just done whatever he wanted. He had a big rubber stamp up here on Capitol Hill -- whatever he wanted, they stamped it 'OK.' That's not the way it is now. Things are not OK in Iraq. As the Pope said on Easter Sunday, a 'slaughter' is taking place in Iraq and the Pope further said 'nothing good' is coming from Iraq. The president must realize that. He has to deal with Congress."

And here's a set of video highlights from the press conference: