Dems Chide Bush for Choosing ‘Notification’ Over ‘Consultation’

ABC News’ Jessica Yellin Reports: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,
and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., looked irate after
emerging from the White House Wednesday afternoon following a meeting
with President Bush that took place just hours before the
commander-in-chief was set to call for sending 22,000 additional U.S.
troops to Iraq.

"There is a difference between notification and consultation," said Pelosi. "This was notification, not consultation."

Reid complained that the meeting which took place today should have happened long ago.

"This conversation with the President should have happened a week, a month, six months ago," said Reid. "He was just practicing his speech today. We Senators had no opportunity to have input on this."

Pelosi complained that this is "the third time" that "we have gone down this path," adding that the new congressional leadership asked the President, "why can’t we use troops already in Baghdad?" and "why can’t you redeploy them?"

"It’s
really unfortunate that we cannot have real consultation between the
legislative and executive branch when it comes to protecting the
American people," she added.