NYT Embraces White House Talking Point, Claims Bush’s Veto Proves He Can ‘Still Get His Way’

Yesterday, House conservatives sustained President Bush’s SCHIP veto, killing a bill that was overwhelmingly supported by the American public. The White House used the occasion to assert its dominance over the legislative branch. “We won this round on SCHIP,” claimed White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.

Perino’s comments underscore Bush’s claim earlier this week, when he argued that by issuing vetoes, he ensures that he is “relevant.” “That’s one way to ensure that I’m in the process,” he told reporters.

The media have blindly picked up this administration talking point. In a New York Times article today, authors Robert Pear and Sheryl Gay Stolberg called Bush’s veto “artful” and said it shows that he is able to “still get his way on Capitol Hill“:

For now, the insurance vote stands as the latest example of how Mr. Bush can still get his way on Capitol Hill. Through artful use of veto threats and his veto pen, Mr. Bush has fended off attempts to force a change of course in Iraq — a feat Democrats would never have imagined when they pushed Republicans out of power a year ago. He has twisted Democrats into knots over domestic surveillance, and forced them to rethink a resolution condemning as genocide a century-old massacre of Armenians.

Bush’s vetoes aren’t “artful.” They have killed bills widely supported by the public. They also don’t say anything about Bush’s relevance or power. As a recent analysis in the National Journal shows, overriding a president’s veto has historically been rare:

Any president can wield a veto pen. A more significant measure of Bush’s power is the fact he has been unable to convince Congress to pass his major priorities, such as immigration and Social Security. Last month, Bush himself acknowledged that people don’t listen to him and in January, the American public already thought that Bush was a lame duck.