During a tribute to the troops yesterday at the MCI Center, Mr. Bush told nearly 7,000 soldiers in attendence:
"As we prepare to celebrate our nation's 55th presidential inauguration, I can think of no better way to begin than by giving thanks for our freedom and those who make it possible."
Of course, as soon as he's sworn in, he plans to propose a budget to Congress that cuts veterans benefits. Remember this item from the The Washington Post?
Veterans programs are also expected to be pinched [in Bush's proposed budget], with flat funding, higher deductibles and co-payments for health care and a squeeze on benefit eligibility, aides said.
While you watch and cringe tomorrow at the sight of Bush becoming weapy and puffing his chest as he pays tribute to the military, know that while he salutes them with one hand, he's stabbing them in the back with the other. Of all his trespasses, this has to be the penultimate in the man's pathological affinity for hypocrisy.