This new version, however, will presumably meet the courts' objection because it allows Congress to reject the president's rescissions by the very same simple majority vote when they approved the spending bill in the first place.
The outlook for the line-item veto in the Senate looks promising right now. Administration officials, adding up the senators who supported it 10 years ago and newer senators who are sponsoring the latest bill, say at least 60 senators are onboard to approve it.
While the bulk of the opposition will come from Democratic senators, some are for it, including Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who calls the bill a "no-brainer" that is needed "to stop the incomprehensible waste coming out of Washington."
But in addition to the fiscal implications of enacting a line-item veto that can meet the court's approval, there will also be a big political payoff for Bush and the Republican-run Congress.
No other domestic issue has more angered the Republican base than the pork-spending scandal that has been flogged on conservative talk shows. Polls show it has been a major factor behind the decline in Bush's polls and those of his party.
Actually, Bush has had some success this year battling the spenders in Congress. The skids were greased for the emergency supplemental bill for the war in Iraq and hurricane relief that was loaded with pork, but a veto threat forced Appropriations Committee cardinals to back down and drop the bill's most egregious spending provisions.
If Congress sends Bush the line-item veto bill this summer, as I expect it will, signing that measure into law will be a major victory in the long battle to control future spending and apply the brakes to the pork binge that has left a shameful mark on the GOP's fiscal record.
It will be a major political victory not only for Bush but for those all too often unsung Republican lawmakers who have long been battling for this needed reform, including Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, a rising star in the GOP's leadership ranks, who introduced the bill in March.
When Bush signs this bill, it will send a clarion call to the GOP's ranks that their party has heard their spending complaints and is tackling the job head-on. That'll add a few more points to his party's job-approval scores at a time when the GOP needs it most.