Bush draws ire of Republican governors

The Administration continues to show a shaky grasp of the concept of logical consistancy in too many of it’s policies. The President is under fire (again) as he continues his implementation of the administration de-facto big-government expansion policies.

Republican governors yesterday strongly criticized the Bush administration for its position on the National Guard and a contract with an Arab government to operate six major U.S. seaports.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, chairman of the National Governors Association, and Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne said the president would violate the Constitution by arrogating unilateral power to deploy the National Guard in a state to deal with a local or regional emergency, such as Hurricane Katrina or terrorist acts. “We are going to be very loud, very clear and very united in our voices to say [to the president] it would be unacceptable for the federal government to announce to a governor: ‘Stand down. We’ve decided to take this operation over,’?” Mr. Huckabee said.

We also know why Mike Rounds hasn’t signed off on the abortion ban yet:

South Dakota Gov. Michael Rounds, a Republican, said the governors will take up the issues surrounding the National Guard when they meet with Mr. Bush and separately with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld tomorrow.

This next bit boggles the mind. The DoD is apparently “mining” resources from the National Guard to lower it’s own expenses:

The governors also faulted the administration’s plan to cut money from the federal budget for the National Guard at a time when guard units must leave their equipment in Iraq as they rotate back to their states and are replaced by fresh units.

What’s needed is a bunch of RINO-hunters to kick the country-club GOP’ers where it seriously hurts.