White House listening? Don't bet on it.

I was scanning the news web sites when I found this on MSNBC (whose main page is, disappointingly, largely devoid of substantive news today). Near the end of the article, I saw the following:

“I think it is accurate to say the administration is listening as never before,”
Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., said after meeting Wednesday with Rice for 40 minutes
in his office.

Don't bet on it. No one in the Bush White House has demonstrated a tendency to listen to anything except what he or she wants to hear. The Shrub ignored the bulk of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group's findings and recommendations, dismissed intelligence that said Iraq did not have WMD or ties to al-Qaeda, and fired generals who publicly contradicted what the regime said about maintaining a long term ocupation of Iraq. And let us not forget that, with illegally used signing statements, Bush as rendered laws--and parts of laws-- passed by Congress null and void, simply because he didn't like them. The grargoyle who occupies the office of the vice presidency has also gone on record stating that the will of Congress and the people do not matter to him or to his boy, Shrubya. So why should Smith, who according to the MSNBC article is up for re-election next year, expect the Shrub to listen to him or anyone else on Iraq?