Each day, after each debacle, after every act of contempt for the Constitution, and each display of arrogant condescension, I’m left to shake my head and simply lament how poorly Americans have done in choosing a president.  His most recent atrocity – insisting on attaching a bill that would fund his decision to send American troops to train Iraqi and Syrian rebels in opposition to ISIS to the continuing resolution that would fund government into December.  This from the same man who as a candidate promised a new era of openness and transparency, and the end of “politics as usual.”

If people are fed up and just irretrievably cynical where government is concerned, who can blame them?  The president has been dragged kicking and screaming to the reality that he must address ISIS now, and when he finally addresses this serious terrorist threat and proposes what is perhaps the most important foreign policy initiative of his presidency, he refuses to allow a clean vote on it.  Rather, he yields to his inner community agitator and insists that our representatives in congress give a single vote for a package that also includes an extension of the Ex-Im bank charter.  It’s less the behavior of a strong and confident leader, and more the that of a petulant adolescent.

I’m well aware of the activism of the media, but it’s my hope that reasonable members of congress will refuse to support the CR in this form and insist that the bill to fund government into December be clean, and further, that funding Ex-Im and the bill to fund his strategy regarding ISIS also both be separate.  I don’t believe that many who are paying attention will be swayed by the media’s inevitable accusation that republicans are engaging in political brinksmanship given the fact the it was the agitator-in-chief’s decision to pull this stunt.  Can we not all agree that this kind of political maneuvering is always unacceptable – regardless of which party is engaging in it?