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Like you, I read enough political commentary, watch enough TV talking heads, and know enough folks on both sides of the aisle that I rarely get too upset when someone says something off-the-charts ridiculous. It’s often par for the course in heated political battles. However, the media response to a certain presidential press conference recently put me over the edge. Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank sent me loony-tunes when he ridiculed President Bush for faulting Congress “16 times in his opening statement alone” during his Rose Garden press conference on April 29. I agree. He should have done it 20 times. George W. Bush, in his last year in the Oval Office, is clearly not a lame-duck president who is wasting time. While he has the bully pulpit, he’s making use of it. In recent weeks, we’ve watched him bring attention to issues of war, peace, and education. In the Rose Garden last week, he put pressure on Congress — and for exercising that legitimate executive privilege, was scolded by Milbank as if it were a desperate ploy to raise his poll numbers. (How thus nudging Congress should have delivered a Gallup miracle is beyond my ken.) During the press conference, the president highlighted a number of significant policy issues — ones on which the congressional Democratic majority have failed to act, whether they’re playing election-year politics or simply dragging their feet. But Milbank wouldn’t stand for any of it. On the economy, the president refused to acknowledge a recession we’re not in. “This economy is going to come on. I’m confident it will,” he said. Jobs numbers released Friday would strengthen his case. On energy, he reminded reporters of Alaska drilling we could be doing had Congress authorized it eight years ago. Milbank is tortured by the reminder that congressional inaction has consequences. I look at Milbank’s Bush-bashing — and it may not be fair to single him out, but he is a telling example — and think: Will the Left please grow up? They have been motivated for years now by a visceral hatred of President Bush. Don’t they have any urge to exercise a little responsible leadership instead of standing in the way of it? Occupied with taking unfair shots at the president, Milbank was silent on a number of the president’s critical and credible charges of congressional nonfeasance. At the press conference, the president said: “On the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Survey Act) issue, it is hard to believe that it’s OK to pass the Protect America Act in August of 2007 and that … people in Congress … don’t believe that act is relevant in 2008.” He said that it’s “either lack of leadership or a lack of understanding of the issue, and either way, it’s not good for the country. We need to make sure our professionals have the tools to protect the American people from attack.” Go to the website of the Heritage Foundation and you’ll see a counter on the bottom right of their homepage. It shows that, for 11 weeks and counting, our nation’s defenses have been compromised, thanks to the present Congress’s refusal to reauthorize the Protect America Act, which expired in February. The bill allowed surveillance, without court authorization, of foreign targets outside the U.S. who were communicating with other foreigners outside the U.S. The myth of the legislation is that it would have the government listening in on your conversations. Not at all. As Heritage explains it, the Protect America Act “has nothing at all to do with domestic wiretapping and has only an incidental relation to Americans’ communications.” Domestic wiretapping actually requires judicial authorization. So President Bush gives Congress a little grief because they’re keeping the intelligence community from having these key tools they want and need. I, for one, would like to see Congress doing little things, like funding the troops (the war supplemental), giving our intelligence community the tools it needs (FISA), passing a Colombia free-trade bill, and rejecting summertime gimmicks (gas-tax holiday). These are issues the president addressed in the press conference that were made to look like a blame-shifting joke. What do reporters think the president should be discussing instead? One reporter asked the president: “You’ve expressed frustration with Congress. . . . Are you frustrated? Are you angry? And do you have any real hope of being able to work with this Congress this year?” This year? Not as long as everyone else in the Rose Garden wants to talk about feelings. Real issues on the campaign trail? Not when we’re distracted by fireworks and drama. These are serious times. They call for serious people. This president is one of them. His fellow D.C. public servants ought to join him. — Kathryn Jean Lopez is editor of National Review Online. © 2008, Newspaper Enterprise Assn.