If Bush is serious about funding the troops, why not recall Congress?

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Speaking in the White House Rose Garden this morning, President Bush put on an impressive display of disgust over Congress’s failure to send him a supplemental bill for funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The more than $100 billion in additional funds have been lingering in Congress for 57 days now. “They left for spring break without finishing their work,” Mr. Bush said. His indignation is understandable. It is inexcusable that half the Senate is out campaigning for president, while a supplemental appropriations bill for funding ongoing war operations sits idle.

But if the President is really serious about getting the troops the funding he says they deserve, why doesn’t he recall Congress and force them to get back to work? Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution stipulates that Bush “may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them.”

Bush says that Congress ought “to send me this unacceptable bill as quickly as possible when they come back. I’ll veto it, and then Congress can get down to business of funding our troops without strings and without delay.” Fair enough. So why not recall the Congress immediately and force them to send up a bill? Otherwise, Bush’s righteous indignation smacks of the very political posturing he accuses the Democratic Congress of peddling.