I should explain the "our weasels" thing: First thing I did when I woke up this morning was turn on the TV, and I was greeted by the supposedly "straight-talking" Rummie delivering a load of crap that Goebbels would have been proud to claim as his own. Do those guys really think that if they squawk "Coalition! Braaawwwk! Coalition!" over and over we'll forget their abject failure to form a coalition? "35! Count-em! 35! Countries in the coalition!". Out of just under 200 countries, and except for poodle Britain, all B- and C-team countries whose "support" was purchased with a few baubles of cash and foreign aid. And...sorry, never mind, it left a bad taste in my mouth that's lingered all day. It leaked out in my griping about "our weasels".

I agree with your comment that weasels are bad because they undermine thinking ability. Twisting the language distorts reality, and impedes genuine communication; and people can never think clearly about things when their understanding is twisted by propaganda. Which, of course, is the point of propaganda.

Finally...in a sense, Bush I bypassed Congress's "power of the purse" by getting our allies to foot most of the bill. Without that monetary support, there was a good chance Congress would have refused to pay for the Gulf War, exercizing what you correctly describe as Congress's veto of a President's war.

--Robert