The Democrats' failure to point out Bush's nonsupport for the troops

In the previous post, I mentioned the Democrats could have used Bush's rejection of an increase in pay and death benefits to show that Bush does not support the troops. That fact could have been used to counter the charge that the Democrats were not supporting the troops. After all, as referenced in the first follow up to my rant, the Democrats were scared of being criticized for not supporting the troops if no bill was passed before this weekend. Had they jumped all over Bush's refusal to support pay raises and death benefits--especially in light of everything quoted in the previous post--they at least would have had a chance to defeat the White House spin of which they were so dreadfully afraid. Instead, they did practically nothing.

The Democrats also could have included pay raises and increased death benefits in the Iraq funding bill. They could have presented a bill with no timelines and no other strings except for the pay raises and increased death benefits. Then what would Bush have done? Sadly we will never know, for the Democrats are afflicted with a stunning lack of foresight or strategic analytical ability--or maybe those qualities were simply overwhelmed by their fear of criticism.