Dems offer to unload pork in war supp, but the President is still unsatisfied

The Prez is sticking to his guns:

WASHINGTON — Democratic congressional leaders appeared to blink Friday in presenting the White House with a war funding proposal that did away with billions of dollars in domestic spending opposed by the administration, but President Bush’s aides quickly rejected the offer on the grounds that it contained yet another timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.

“To say I was disappointed in the meeting is an understatement,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “I really did expect the president would accept some accountability for what we’re trying to accomplish here.”

White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten, representing Bush, turned down the Democratic offer that included plans for withdrawing U.S. troops, but would give the president the authority to waive compliance with a timetable.

“We consider that to be not a significant distinction,” Bolten said. “Whether waivable or not, timelines send the wrong signal.”

The Democratic plan also offered to take out billions of dollars of domestic spending included in the emergency supplemental bill.

“The president pummeled the Congress for two weeks because he said that we have inserted so-called domestic items that shouldn’t be in a war bill,” said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis. “So what we offered today to drop all of that – all of those domestic items – and they turned that down.”

Interesting. So I wonder where they planned on getting the necessary votes they needed for the bill’s passage sans pork, considering they had to bribe members of their own party in order to pass the last one in the first place?