: Karen Kwiatkowski: The Lame Duck of Destruction

Amen, say it again.

MilitaryWeek.com: Karen Kwiatkowski: The Lame Duck of Destruction:

The evangelical in the White House crossed a milestone this week.

For the rest of the world, this milestone passes largely unnoticed in the midst of Middle East fear, death, and destruction in Iraq, in Gaza and the occupied territories, and now in Lebanon. Specifically taking a back seat to the Israeli-Hezbollah war is the ongoing and tragic status of American-occupied Iraq.

But in Washington, history was made when George W. Bush finally, and for the first time, used his presidential veto power to reject a piece of legislation from his loyal Congress.

The veto, as Bush explained in a public ceremony framed by chattering toddlers, was done to prevent American taxpayers from being compelled to fund the deliberate destruction of human embryos.'

He went on, 'Crossing this line would be a grave mistake and would needlessly encourage a conflict between science and ethics that can only do damage to both and harm our Nation as a whole.'

Science and ethics are two areas where George W. Bush cannot be accused of knowing too much, thinking too deeply, nor retaining even a shadow of personal humility.

It may be that this historic veto on a domestic issue is unrelated to global politics. Perhaps it is just an attempt to consolidate the evangelical nanny-state supporters that constitute the Bush base within the Republican Party in advance of upcoming midterm congressional elections.

But the logic of this veto and Bush's other actions in the past few weeks, and years, is worthy of examination. This is beyond lame duck. It may be the story of the lame dodo in the White House.