President Bush will not want to leave for weekends in Crawford this summer without his veto pen. Yesterday, his OMB Director Rob Portman renewed his threats to veto any appropriations bill that exceeds the budget request the president submitted to Congress in February. On May 11, Portman had warned only that the president would veto any spending bill not on a "sustainable path" to complying with the president's $933 billion total discretionary spending limit. But yesterday Portman suggested that four spending bills expected to be approved by the House Appropriations Committee in the next couple of weeks could be vetoed unless substantial changes are made:

• homeland security
• energy and water projects
• natural resources and the environment
• veterans' health care

Would Bush really veto a veterans' health care bill marginally larger than his in the middle of a war? Said Portman: "I'd rather not." But even in Crawford, the pen is mightier than the chainsaw.