:: The Bitch Girls ::

:: Sunday, February 23, 2003 ::

I Can Understand Their Frustration I'm not Bush's biggest fan, nor do I have a knee jerk reaction against him like some bitches people do. I do have to say that this story certainly makes me wonder about the White House.

With their states' economies in tatters, members of the National Governors Association -- who began their four-day winter meeting Saturday -- are hoping to win more federal aid to cover soaring costs for health care, homeland security and education.
But the governors have been told that most of them won't be able to directly question the president during Monday's White House gathering, according to Nicole Harburger, communications director for the Democratic Governors Association.
"Several of the governors are considering not attending the meeting," Harburger said. "The governors are upset and concerned that the White House is not interested in a dialogue."
She said the governors have been told the group as a whole will be allowed just two questions -- and must submit them in writing beforehand.
...
Republican Gov. Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho, vice chairman of the national association, said there still would be an opportunity to ask questions of Bush, and that the changes were a constructive attempt to focus closely on top concerns.
Bush closed to the press Sunday's formal dinner with the governors; in years past, it had been open. Locke said the White House has even set limits on Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton's toast at the dinner.
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Several Democrats said they were concerned that Washington's focus overseas was shortchanging domestic needs. Tennessee's Phil Bredesen recounted meeting with the president with other governors just before Christmas.
"It was great and I was honored to be there, but we spent the entire 45 minutes talking about Iraq," he said. "Myself, and many other governors, Republicans and Democrats, would like to have had some discussion about education, about how we're going to get the economy back on track."

So all governors get to narrow any questions down to two that the White House gets to pick out, the public doesn't have access via the press, and he has a history of ignoring the issues that are most important to the states. I hate politics.

Just for fun, here's another quote from the article that caught my eye,

Democrat Bob Holden of Missouri said, "We hear from the White House about partnership. But when you get past the rhetoric of partnership, we see no money."

Would it be a shock to him that partnership doesn't always mean money??

UPDATE: I see that Kim du Toit has also taken on this story.

So, in typical spoiled-brat fashion, some Democrat governors are not going to attend the meeting. Boo fucking hoo.

I don't see why they would attend. I mean send an aide or something, but if they don't have the opportunity to discuss issues that they think are most pertinent to their state, why should they waste their time? Why not go back home and start working on solving those problems? Maybe it's just my attitude about wasting time and resources.

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:: Bitter 3:41 PM [+] ::
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