He's The Decider, after all

Egads.

Just when you think you've heard it all, the current president and his cronies come up with more.

In today's Washington Post Michael Fletcher reports W said Congress can't stop him. "But I've made my decision. And we're going forward."

Some details:

Faced with substantial opposition both in Congress and among the American public to their Iraq plans, President Bush and Vice President Cheney vowed yesterday to forge ahead with the deployment of more than 21,000 additional troops.

In an interview broadcast last night on CBS's "60 Minutes," Bush said he has the authority as commander in chief to move ahead with the deployment, regardless of what the Democratic-controlled Congress does in opposition. "In this situation, I do, yeah," Bush said. "I fully understand they could try to stop me from doing it. But I've made my decision. And we're going forward."

National security adviser Stephen J. Hadley said yesterday that the money is already in place to begin moving additional troops to Iraq. "We have authority in the -- we have money in the '07 budget, which has been appropriated by the Congress, to move these troops to Iraq, and the president will be doing that," he said on ABC's "This Week."

...

Earlier yesterday, Cheney said on "Fox News Sunday" that a resolution would not influence how the administration executes its policy. "Congress, obviously, has to support the effort through the power of the purse, so they have got a role to play and we certainly recognize that," Cheney said. "But also, you cannot run a war by committee."

...

Bush, Cheney and Hadley emphasized that the rise in troop numbers will be coupled with new efforts to get Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to take tough action to improve security in the country.

"I told him it's time to get going," Bush said of Maliki, who in the past has blocked U.S. troops from engaging fighters loyal to militant cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Maliki has often bent to the demands of Sadr, who has a powerful Shiite militia in Iraq as well as a decisive number of seats in the Iraqi parliament. Asked if Sadr is an enemy of the United States, Bush hedged. "If he is ordering his people to kill Americans, he is," he said.

...

Despite the growing antipathy to the U.S. presence in Iraq both in that country and here, Bush said he is determined to see the war through. "I'm not going to change my principles," Bush said. "I'm not going to, you know, I'm not going to try to be popular and change principles to do so."

"You cannot simply stick your finger up in the wind and say, 'Gee, public opinion's against, we better quit,' " Cheney agreed. That would "validate the al-Qaeda view of the world," he added.

...

Cheney said Iran has created tensions in the Middle East with its pursuit of nuclear weapons and by meddling in Iraq. "I think it's been pretty well known that Iran is fishing in troubled waters, if you will, inside Iraq," he said. "And the president has responded to that."

Wow. I'm not sure which of these statements is the most disturbing. I do like the delicate irony of Cheney accusing Iran of meddling in Iraq. "Fishing in troubled waters, if you will:" who was it troubled those waters, Dick? Even after '92 the non-Arab Iranians found no welcome among the Iraqi Arab Shi'ites.

I also like the notion of paying attention to the public opinion "valdiat[ing] the al-Qaeda view of the world." That's just kind of weird.

And W's reluctance to label al-Sadr an enemy is illuminating. After all, al-Maliki is clearly more intimidated by and/or beholden to al-Sadr than Bush.

But most disturbing? That's either Cheney's dismissal of Congress as anything more than a purse, or Bush's dismissal of Congress, period.