You can lead a pig to shit, but you can't make him him roll around in it:

President Bush's request for $25 billion more to fight the war in Iraq has started moving through Congress, where it is running into bipartisan criticism from members who say the proposal is a blank check they are unwilling to endorse.

Bush's proposal […] calls for creating a "contingent emergency reserve fund'' to help pay for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and giving the Defense Department almost total leeway in deciding how to spend the money.

As I sit here in Chicago, sweating profusely as a result of a hideous caffeine bender, it sure does seem like our strapping young nation has slipped from its moorings. I miss the old right wing. They're just not funny anymore. Their rants about morality, militarism, and the evil temptations that dwell in the inside of an intern's mouth (so warm!) were a delight to refute. Now, the poor bastards just look lost, clueless…disconnected. My indignation has been transmogrified into pity and sadness. One gets the impression that somewhere, buried deep in the soul of the GOP, there is a genuine desire to fix the things that have gone horribly wrong, but no matter how hard they try, they can't help it – they just keep fucking up.