“Well, we’ve never backed off from a fight with this Congress or any other Congress. …” This was the Vice President’s response to Rush Limbaugh in discussing the perception that perhaps the Miers nomination was to avoid a fight with Senate Democrats.

The problem is, the Vice President is just wrong. The White House promised a veto of the transporation bill, then punted. The White House had an opportunity to take a more market-oriented Katrina recovery approach and turned it into the New New Deal. The White House was told by more than a dozen Republican Senators that they would fight hard for a Scalia-type conservative Supreme Court nominee this time around, and instead they get someone who looks like an also-ran in a Norma Desmond lookalike contest.