Vote For It and Then Read It

The Dems have chosen some really inept leaders (h/t The Corner):

The much-anticipated presidential veto of the Iraq supplemental spending bill was to have taken place already, but a signature - or lack thereof - has been standing in the way.

And it's not President Bush's signature - it's House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's.

The conference report on the bill (HR 1591 - H Rept 110-107) was adopted by the House and cleared by the Senate last week, but Pelosi, D-Calif., wanted time to personally read it and sign it before sending it to Pennsylvania Avenue.

"It's a major piece of legislation and you have to go through it word for word and line by line," Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami said Monday. "She believes this is very important legislation, which she will sign and the president will receive Tuesday."

Republican Minority Leader John Boehner had this to say:

NOTE for Leno, Letterman, Conan, and other interested parties: Now we've heard everything. The Speaker recommended the conference report on the war funding bill last week, voted for it last week, and could have sent it to the President as early as last Thursday when the Senate passed it (the House was in session). But NOW she wants to read it?? Wow.

That may be the way things are done up there, but admitting it is stupid. Of course, the real reason for the delay is that the Dems wanted to present the bill to the president on the anniversary of the "Mission Accomplished" speech. Why don't they just be honest...for once...and tell us that there's a political mission behind the delay. It would have been less painful than admitting she voted for a bill she hadn't read.