Bush stops saying "Democrat"?

In his report on President Bush's press conference today, New York Times reporter Jim Rutenberg writes that President Bush "seemed to consciously back away from describing his opponents as 'the Democrat Party'":

But even as he engaged in openly partisan battle, Mr. Bush at one point seemed to consciously back away from describing his opponents as “the Democrat Party,” a formulation that they take as a slight. “It’s irresponsible for the Democrat leadership — Democratic leadership — in Congress to delay for months on end while our troops in combat are waiting for the funds,” he said.

But if you read the transcript or listen to audio of the press conference, you'll see that Bush used the word "Democrat" instead of "Democratic" two other times earlier in his opening statement:

Democrat leaders in Congress seem more interested in fighting political battles in Washington than in providing our troops what they need to fight the battles in Iraq. If Democrat leaders in Congress are bent on making a political statement, then they need to send me this unacceptable bill as quickly as possible when they come back. I'll veto it, and then Congress can get down to the business of funding our troops without strings and without delay.

Rutenberg even quotes the second sentence of this passage earlier in his piece, but fails to note the implications. In short, Bush corrected himself and said "Democratic" one out of three times. What an olive branch!

Comments

[ME]

It does show at least a bit of effort on Bush's part not to look like a petulant child.

Let's face it, he doesn't have the language skills to rapidaly tranistion from one formulation to another.

Hell, after 6 years, he still says "nucular".

[Ron]

Dubya, first he's the uniter, then he's the divider. Now he's uniter again. Color me confused.

--Ron

http://revolttoday.blogspot.com/