Democrats vs. Bush the Obstructionist

Continuing its fast start, the Democratic-led Congress hasn't slowed down. Yesterday the House passed the first increase in the federal minimum wage, and today it passed a bill bolstering embryonic stem cell research.

Unfortunately, the progress that Democrats are trying to make is about to run into a brick wall. After bemoaning the "obstructionist" tactics used by the Democrats to block his atrocious agenda when they were in the minority, Bush is ready to stand in the way of the will of the American people. He has already promised to veto the aformentioned stem cell legislation, and today vowed to veto Democratic-drafted legislation requiring the government to negotiate with drug companies for lower prices under Medicare.

Setting aside the hypocrisy of his actions, why does Bush not want lower drug prices for Americans? Could it be that the pharmaceutical industry is one of his leading patrons? And why does he not want to fund further stem cell research? Could it be that he has to continue to throw red meat at the only people who still think he's doing a slightly better-than-crappy job?

Bush is becoming a lame-duck president very quickly. If he thinks that vetoing popular legislation is the way to go about keeping his relevancyt, he may be dumber than even I thought he was.